Stocks are making some modest gains again today amid a lack of major market-moving news. The S&P/TSX composite index has added 14 points to 7,577, reversing an earlier slide.

Purchasing activity in the Canadian economy expanded in September for a second consecutive month, according to the Ivey Purchasing Managers Index. The index rose to 59.4 in September from 51.1 in August, although many economists don’t put too much stock in this indicator.

Toronto volume is much improved today at 145.9 million shares, with buying more than doubling up on the selling. Market breadth is also confidently bullish, as winners outpace losers 11:9.

On a sector basis, there are gains in diversifieds, financials and golds. Consumer staples are up, but consumer discretionary stocks are down. There is selling in tech and telecom issues as traders take some profits.

Nortel has bounced back from the early round of profit-taking, and is now sitting more or less flat in decent volume. There is still some considerable weakness in Telus, Microcell, and Rogers Communications. BCE is down 0.6%.

There is plenty of action in the financial group today, with Manulife sliding another 0.7%. However, the banks are generally bouncing, led by Bank of Montreal and TD Bank, which are both up just shy of 2%. Royal Bank and CIBC are both almost 1% higher.

Golds are also seeing notable action. Placer Dome is down about 2% on news that it is issuing about US$500 million in new debt. The firm intends to use the net proceeds to refinance costs associated with the acquisition of East African Gold Mines, to finance capital expenditures and development projects, and for general corporate purposes.

Other gold stocks are posting gains. Kinross is up about 2.5%, Bema Gold is up more than 5%, and Yamana Gold is higher, too.

Teck is enjoying some strong gains elsewhere in the mining world, up 4.6%. Sherritt is making gains, as are Breakwater Resources, First Calgary Petroleums, Starpoint Energy and Global Thermoelectric.

Other winners including convenience store chain Couche-Tard, which is up another 1.2%, following yesterday’s U.S. acquisition . Biovail is back up 3.3% today, and Extendicare has recovered 8%.

On the downside, there is weakness in the forestry group, with selling in Abitibi, Norske Skog and SFK Pulp Fund. Alliance Atlantis is weaker, as is Angiotech.

In M&A news, Alcan has received approval for its Pechiney SA takeover from French regulators. The offer is now open in France, but it is still awaiting approval in the U.S. by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cognos says it plans to buyback 5% of its shares.

Slater Steel announced that it has made significant progress toward developing a business plan for the restructuring or sale of its Hamilton Specialty Bar, Atlas Stainless Steels, Sorel Forge and, possibly, Slater Lemont divisions. But it is looking for help from its labour to make these deals work.

In New York, stocks opened lower today, as traders indulged in some profit taking. However, markets have turned around at midday. The Dow Jones industrial average is up six points at midday to 9,601. The tech heavy Nasdaq composite index has added two points to 1,895. However, the S&P 500 is down one point to 1,033.

The S&P/TSX Venture index is also up five points to 1,388. Volume is decent there at 31.9 million shares. Inca Pacific Resources is leading the trade, up 2¢ to 17¢ on more than 2.4 million shares.

The Canadian dollar continues to fly higher as it broke back through the US75¢ plateau for the first time in almost four months. In late morning trading, the loonie was quoted at US75.02¢, up 0.40 of a cent from Monday’s close.