Stocks opened up nicely and were heading higher on positive reaction to yesterday’s interest rate cut in the U.S. Then buying began in the late morning when a U.S. court decided to overturn an earlier court decision ordering the breakup of Microsoft Corp. That is sending techs higher.

At midday, the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index up 87 points to 7619. Volume is robust at 81 million shares, with buyers holding a moderate edge over sellers. Winners are also outnumbering losers, but not by a large margin.

Industrials are leading the way higher, up about 3%, with techs up 4%. Consumer products are strong, as are financials, miners, utilities, real estate and paper stocks. Golds are weak, as are pipelines and energy stocks, particularly the oil service stocks.

Nortel Networks is leading the way. ItÕs up 3.5% on news of continued growth and new contract wins for its wireless business. The firm is shrugging off deep trouble at rival Redback Networks. It is up 3.5% on 5.5 million shares. Other tech winners include Celestica, which is up 6% in heavy trading, Research in Motion, up 8% in active trading, and there are gains in C-MAC, Siebel, Sierra Wireless and 724 Solutions.

Alcan is leading the miners higher. Other winners include BCE, Teknion, Intertape Polymer, Mullen Transportation, Leitch Technology and AnorMed. The financials are bouncing back today too, led by Bank of Montreal.

The downside is a bit of a mixed bag. Energy plays continue to suffer sliding commodity prices. Petro Canada is down, as is Precision Drilling. Other losers include Barrick Gold, Cominco Finning, Quebecor, CHC and Exfo Electro. Thomson is down on news that it must sell two assets to resolve U.S. antitrust concerns regarding its US$2.1 billion acquisition of Harcourt General.

In other news, Empire Company’s is reporting net earnings of $32.6 million, or 98¢ per share for its fourth quarter ended April 30, versus $20.9 million, or 58¢ per share, for the same quarter last year, a 69% increase on a per-share basis.

In the U.S., markets opened optimistically thanks to the rate cut and the end of quarter-end window dressing. Then came the Microsoft ruling, which sent stocks higher immediately. Bloomberg reports that the court upheld the lower court’s ruling that Mr. Softee illegally defended its Windows monopoly, but overturned the decision to breakup the company and sent the case back to the lower court for a new remedy. It also removed Judge Jackson from the case, and was very critical of his performance. The stock is still halted, but all around it are rallies. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 202 points to 10637, about 2%. The NASDAQ composite index is almost twice as strong, up 77 points to 2152. The S&P has gained 23 points to 1234.

The CDNX is the lone party pooper today, it is down 11 points to 3186. Volume is very weak today at 11.5 million shares. Techs are up there too, but miners are down and oils are flat. Genoil Inc remains the top trader. ItÕs down 11% to 25¢ on 1.3 million shares.