Markets opened down this morning, but after shaking off those early tech worries, they are almost all the way back from whence they came. At midday, the TSE 300 is down just two points to 8,062.

Volume is strong at 84.5 million shares, with the action favouring buyers almost three to one. Market breadth is more even, with winners holding a 10 to nine edge over losers.

On a sector basis, the techs remain depressed, with the industrials down almost 2%. Financials are down a bit, as are paper stocks and merchandisers. Everything else is up.

Gold bugs are having a rare good day today, with the TSE’s gold index up about 4.7% on news that the price of gold is up 1.6% in New York to US$269. Consumer stocks, miners and real estate are up, too.

The top trader today is good old Nortel Networks. It is down 3.7% at midday on 4.1 million shares, as traders dump the networking stocks in response to yesterday’s weak results at bellwether Cisco Systems Inc.

Stocks joining Nortel on the downside include Research in Motion, Corus, Leitch Technology, Microcell, Thomson, Teknion and Power.

Among gold stocks, Kinross is leading the way, up 15% on 3.7 million shares. It is followed closely by Placer Dome and Barrick, both up sharply and trading heavily.

BioChem Pharma is enjoying a strong day, and singlehandedly driving consumer stocks higher. It has gained 8.5% on 2.4 million shares on the expectation that its takeover by Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc is going to go ahead. The firms announced that, assuming closing takes place on Friday May 11, the average Shire price to determine the exchange ratio for the merger will be US$48.78. The exchange ratio to be applied would be 2.2757 Shire shares being issued for each BioChem share.

Also up are such old economy names as Cominco, Homestake Mining, Cameco, Agnico Eagle, Meridian Gold, Canadian Natural Resources and Gulf Canada.

In New York, the same trends are at play. A deeply down open has been met by sustained buying. At midday, the Dow is all the way back up, trading up 10 points to 10,894.

The Nasdaq composite index is stuck down 24 points to 2,174. The S&P 500 is still down three points to 1,258. General Electric announced it has improving intermediate-term visibility, which is boosting its fortunes, and that of the Dow in general.

The CDNX is up again today, gaining three points to 3,151. Volume is robust at 19.1 million shares. Oils are holding the fort in the face of slides in mines and techs. Canadian Imperial Ventures is the top trader, up 9% to $1.67 on volume of 1.1 million shares.