Tuesday’s market tone better following some encouraging economic news, but the volume remains uninspiring.

At midday, the TSE 300 is up 54 points to 7,815.

Volume is on the weak side at 75.3 million shares, but it is certainly bullish, with buying more than doubling the selling at a nine to four rate. Market breadth is much more even, favouring winners over losers by about seven to six.

Strong support for the economic recovery scenario came with the Bank of Canada raising rates this morning. The central bank acted to prevent the recovery from happening too quickly.

U.S. production numbers surprised on the upside, suggesting that the U.S. is coming back nicely, too.

This news has a broad rally underway, led by the tech stocks, up more than 4%, and mining stocks are up almost 3%. Even the financials are shaking off the higher rates to trade higher. Gold bugs are sour on the news, while utilities and real estate are a bit weaker, too.

Nortel Networks is leading the big tech rally today. The stock is up 6.4% on strong volume of 8.2 million shares. Zarlink, BCE Emergis and Celestica are up strongly, too.

Blue chips are generally gaining across the board. Encana is leading the energy plays higher, up 1.6%. Suncor Energy is also up strongly.

Alcan is shaking off its weak earnings news to trade up 0.5%. CIBC is leading the banks higher. Bombardier is up 1.6%. Vivendi Universal is almost 5%. Rogers, Pangeo Pharma, Contrans, and QLT are also rallying.

All of this good news for everyone else has the golds in a funk. Barrick is down 2.3% in heavy trading. It is joined on the downside by Kinross, Agnico Eagle, Placer Dome, Goldcorp and Newmont Mining.

BCE isn’t joining the fun either. It is down 1.7% in active trading. CN Rail is down, as are Algoma, Fairfax Financial, Metro, and Hurricane Hydrocarbons.

On the news front, Heroux-Devtek reports that it has secured syndicated evergreen credit facilities totalling $100 million. These facilities could be used for operating, acquisition and general corporate purposes. The syndicate of lenders was led by National Bank Financial, and includes the Bank of Nova Scotia, HSBC Canada and Laurentian Bank of Canada.

In New York, the news is all good for economy watchers. Industrial production surprised on the upside, and inflation surprised on the downside. Buying is enthusiastic as a result. The Dow Jones industiral is up 181 points at midday to 10,275. The S&P 500 has gained 21 points to 1,124. The Nasdaq composite index has added 51 points to 1,805.

The S&P/CDNX index has added two ticks of its own to 1159. Volume is impressive there too, at 21.3 million shares. Oriole Systems is the top trader, gaining 4¢ to 9¢ on 1.3 million shares.