By James Langton

(August 8 – 13:00 ET) – Stocks are bouncing at midday, after shaking off profit worries. The TSE 300 is up 263 points to within spitting distance of 11,000 again at 10,831. Volume is strong at 66 million shares, about 7:3 in favour of buyers. Advancers outnumber decliners 5:4.

Utilities are the only group with any meaningful downside, off about 1% after a profit warning at Verizon in the U.S. Otherwise strength is evident across the Street, with industrials up an incredible 4.3%. Consumer stocks, conglomerates, mines, paper and energy plays are all bouncing nicely.

Nortel Networks is leading the way with a 4.6% gain on more than 3 million shares. For the most part it is catching up with gains made yesterday and continuing today in New York. The firm also announced today a couple of new supply contracts, including a US$45 million deal with Johnson Controls Inc.

Joining Nortel are strong gains at JDS Uniphase, Exfo-Electro, Celestica, C-MAC, Sierra Wireless, Biovail and Ballard Power. Bombardier is up sharply today in strong trading, as is Sun Life and TransCanada Pipelines.

Heritage Concepts is a hot trade again today, up 18% on more than 5 million shares.

BCE is a big loser, off 1.5% as some telecoms suffer. Xillix is off 5% as investors react to last week’s earnings news. Other losers include GT Group Telecom, Crosskeys, Hummingbird and fund company, AGF.

In other business news, Global Thermoelectric is planning a $100 million warrant offering led by Sprott Securities, Goepel McDermid and TD Securities.

In New York, stocks are bouncing again after a weak opening. Stocks opened down on profit worries, but began bouncing again on optimism that the Fed won’t raise rates until November. Data out this morning revealed continued productivity gains, and with the U.S. election race heating up, most observers expect no action on interests rates until after the election is over.

At midday the Dow Jones industrial average is up 59 points to 10,926. The Nasdaq composite has gained nine to 3,872, and the S&P 500 is up three points to 1,482. Eastman Kodak Co. and Home Depot Inc. are leading the Dow. Nasdaq is up on Cisco Systems.

Only the CDNX is down at midday, off 16 points to 3,352. Volume is average at 15.3 million shares. techs and mines are weak, oils are down slightly, too. Fossil Bay Resources Ltd is the strongest trader, up 48% to 59¢ on 1.5 million shares.