Trading light but up this morning

The TSE 300 is up more than
60 points, on just 48 million
shares traded this morning. The
volume is about 2:1 in favour of
the buyers, and 9:8 in favour of
advancers over decliners.

Financial stocks are leading the
way this morning – up almost 2%.
There is some optimism about the
U.S. Federal Reserve Board monthly
meeting tomorrow. While opinion
about the Fed’s next interest rate
move is pretty evenly split, both
sides are making bullish
arguments, regardless of which way
the Fed goes.

TD Bank is leading the
way, up almost 3%, with 2.2 million
shares changing hands. That’s due
partly to enthusiasm for the
sector, partly to some buying of
its discount brokerage subsidiary,
TD Waterhouse, which
announced an online investment
banking initiative this morning,
and partly some good feelings
about the bank itself which is due
to announce its year-end earnings
on Thursday. Also strong among
the financials is CIBC, Fairfax
Financial Holdings and
E-L Financial.

Following the financials, the
conglomerates and media stocks are
doing rather well too. Selected
tech plays Sierra Wireless,
Research in Motion and
Cryptologic – are up strongly.
Corel is up more than 9% so
far.

Paper stocks, real estate and
merchandising are the only sectors
that are down this morning.
Newbridge is down more than
5%, with takeover speculation
cooling. Air Canada is off
2.25%.

Montreal is up 51 points.
Alberta has added 18 points,
while the VSE is down more than a
point.

In New York, the Dow has
reversed its early down course,
and is currently trading up
about eight points. Nasdaq is
leading the charge for the tech
stocks, up 15 points. While the
S&P is flat to positive.