By James Langton

(March 7 – 13:00 ET) – The late opening TSE is on track with strong gains this morning. The TSE had more computer problems today, delaying the market open by an hour.Traders seem to be shrugging off the outage, pushing the TSE 300 up 68 points to 9,647.

Volume has been understandably light – 107 million shares – with that missing hour undoubtedly having hampered trade. Selling is negative for a change today, slightly outweighing the buying. Decliners are also outpacing advancers about 11:10.

On a sector basis, however, nine of the TSE’s 14 groups are up, led by the golds which are up 3.25%. The industrials, utilities and energy stocks are up markedly too, driving the index up. On the downside, media stocks are leading the way. They’re off almost 4%. Financials and pipelines are down too.

Interest rate fears are resurgent on the heels of strong economic reports in both Canada and the U.S. this morning. Commodity trading has seen oil pushed beyond US$33 per barrel. Skepticism surrounding proposed OPEC production increases has inflation and interest rate watchers very nervous.

Traders are piling back into some of the high tech darlings. JDS Uniphase, Ballard Power, Tundra Semiconductor and Certicom are all boasting strong gains. Angiotech Pharmaceuticals has added 10%. C-MAC is moving strongly too. Burlington Resources and Northstar Energy are the old economy leaders.

Seagram is single-handedly taking down the media stocks today. It is down more than 5%. Research in Motion, Creo Products, Sierra Wireless and 724 Solutions are all down heavily as the intra-tech rotation continues.

Cinar reopened finally today and it is being beaten like a pinãta – without the prize. The stock is down 68% to $8.75, as it faces management and legal turmoil.

Hummingbird has announced a 2-for-1 stock split. Magellan is reporting fourth quarter earnings per share of 22¢, up from 18¢ per share in the period a year ago. Saskatchewan Wheat Pool says it will take a $12 million restructuring charge in the third quarter, and will also cut 275 jobs.

The CDNX is sliding for a change today. At noon it was down 41.5 points to 4,229.25.

In New York trading has been characteristically volatile. The Nasdaq peeked above 5,000 intraday for the first time ever this morning. It has since backed off those levels to sit up 51 points on the day at 4,947. On the Dow, flight from Proctor & Gamble after an earnings warning has seen the whole old economy take a beating. The Dow is back down below 10,000 at 9,918, off 252 points. This is a new low for the Dow in 2000. The S&P is down 12 points to 1,379.