Bulls and bears have fought to a draw so far today. At midday the choppy trade has the TSE 300 unchanged at 7,561.

Volume is active at 94.5 million shares, with the buyers holding a modest 15:14 edge on sellers.

Market breadth is more positive with winners leading losers by a ratio of about five to four.

There’s strength in golds once again today. Conglomerates, energy plays, and miners are strong. But techs are weaker, as are media stocks and transports.

Bombardier is one of the board’s biggest movers today, down 4.6% on heavy volume of 5.4 million shares, on news that a dispute with DaimlerChrysler over the sale of Adtranz is going to arbitration.

Nortel Networks continues to slump, down another 2% today. Mosaic, Bell Canada International, AT&T Canada and Shaw Communications are all down, too.

The financials are mixed today, with weakness in Royal Bank, Fairfax Financial and Manulife Financial. TD Bank is bouncing back today, and Hub International is up, too.

BCE is rallying back a little bit today, too. It is joined by more convincing gains in the energy group from Westcoast Energy, PetroCanada, and Enersco Energy Services.

The chemicals group is getting some support from Nexen and Agrium. And there’s strength in NovaGold, Kinross Gold, Agnico Eagle, Aur Resources and TVX Gold.

In earnings news, Brascan reported that it earned $311 million in 2001. Total cash flow from operations increased to a record $601 million, compared with $495 million in 2000.

In New York, the bulls have held their gains a little better. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 44 points to 10,034. The Nasdaq composite index has added 13 points to 1,872. The S&P is up five ticks to 1,123.

The S&P/CDNX Composite Index continues to disappoint. It is down another five points to 1,136. Volume is a little light there too at 15.5 million shares. Dynacor Inc. is the top trader, gaining about 9.5% to 35¢ on 451,850 shares.