By James Langton
(November 2 – 13:00 ET) – After a strong open the Toronto market turned sharply negative, but at midday the TSE 300 sits down just 25 points at 9,569. Volume has been strong at just over 70 million shares, about three to two in favour of buyers. Advancers are also outpacing decliners seven to six.
Nortel is weighing on the market at midday, but there is also weakness in real estate, mines and auto parts. Media stocks are providing decent buying resistance, with help from financials, transports and chemicals.
At midday Nortel is down about 4%, investors may be somewhat upset that the firm’s attempts to soothe traders failed yesterday. But the firm was also hit with a downgrade from SG Cowen, which dropped the stock to a buy from a strong buy.
There’s a weird vibe in the tech sector today with Oracle down sharply on rumours of everything from its CFO’s resignation to CEO Larry Ellison’s death. The rumours are all being denied by the firm, but the stock is still off 9%.
Nortel may be weak, but many other techs are enjoying a good rally. Research in Motion is up yet again. Sierra Wireless, Pivotal, Alcatel, JDS Uniphase, Celestica, NPS Allelix and PRI Automation are up as well.
This morning’s losers include Mosaid, QLT , Centricity and Linamar . GSI Lumonics is also losing ground after a very strong open.
The mining stocks are down on weakness in Alcan, which is off 2.3% in active trading. Real estate is suffering from poor results in Trizec-Hahn this morning, which is knocking that stock back. Brookfield Properties Corp. reported its third-quarter operating cash flow increased to 45¢ a share in the third quarter, up from 36¢ a share last year.
Energy stocks are up, with active trading in Gulf Canada and TransCanada Pipelines. Talisman Energy Inc. reported increased net income, up from 45¢ a share last year to $1.53 a share this year.
Financials stocks are being by the insurers, and specifically Sun Life which is up about 4% in very heavy trading of more than 1.5 million shares, following its strong earnings. All the banks are up, and Mackenzie Financial is up in active trading, too.
In other news, TELUS Corp. is trumpeting a $100 million, five-year contract to provide high-speed Internet connections to ISP, Technovision Systems Inc.
In New York the action has been rather heavy, with strong gains in techs leading the way. Trading in the Dow is virtually a wash, up just eight points to 10,907. The Nasdaq composite is booming, up 64 points to 3,397. The S&P 500 is up just five ticks to 1427.
Bargain-hunting in beaten-up sectors such as opticals, networkers, computer manufacturers, and semiconductors are all up. Intel, HP, Apple, Microsoft, Dell and IBM are all strong. J.P. Morgan is snapping back, too.
The CDNX is following New York, up six points at midday to 3,282. Volume is strong at 18 million shares. Techs are up 1.3%, but mines and oils are gaining. Celest Medichem is the top trader, up 190% to 58¢ on 1.6 million shares on its debut. It is followed by TM Bioscience.