By James Langton

(January 31 – 13:00 ET) – Stocks are trading in a narrow range ahead of this afternoon’s announcement on U.S. interest rates. At midday the TSE 300 is up 61 points to 9,409.

Volume is surprisingly robust ahead of the announcement at 84.3 million shares, favouring buyers about two to one. Winners outnumber the losers five to four.

Market breadth favours buyers, too, with the industrials and conglomerates leading the way higher. Pipelines are weak, but most of the downside moves are moderate.

As usual, Nortel Networks is leading the price action, up 1.6% on relatively light volume of 3.3 million shares. Nortel is up on the heels of some strength in French networker Alcatel, which is boosting the group. TSE-traded Alcatel exchangeables are higher, too.

Networking stocks are joined by techs such as, C-MAX, Exfo Electro, Sierra Wireless, and BCE Emergis. Ballard Power and Potash are up notably, too.

Plenty of heavy trading continues in Mackenzie Financial. The stock is flat with 5.2 million shares changing hands. There’s a little weakness in financials ahead of the rate announcement though, on the feeling that any good news is already priced in. Amvescap is down among the fund companies, while BMO is down among banks.

Other losers include a broad range of names, including World Heart, Janna, Biovail, TransCanada Pipelines, DaimlerChrysler, Wescast and Helix Biopharma.

In New York the story’s the same, no one is making any big bets ahead of the Fed decision. Volume is soft.

The Dow Jones industrial average is up 26 points to 10,907. The Nasdaq composite index has gained nine points to 2,847. The S&P 500 is up two ticks to 1,375.

As in Canada, networkers are leading the techs higher, joined by some strength in chips. The old economy stocks continue to see sector rotation with drugs and banks down, and energy and retail up.

The CDNX makes the up day unanimous, gaining 10 points to 3,247 on light volume of 16.9 million shares. All the strength is in techs, up 1.2%, while mines and oils are down slightly. Kobex Resources Ltd. is the top trader, down 18% to 49¢ on 602,000 shares.