U.S. markets shrugged off Monday’s losses to post big gains on Tuesday. In Toronto, stocks closed modestly lower. The S&P/TSX composite index shed 17.31 points to 6,519.16, as Canadian stocks played catch up with yesterday’s U.S. slide.

U.S. stocks rose on the widely accepted view that the weak economic data out of the U.S. in the last few weeks will mean that the Federal Reserve will have to start cutting interest rates again.

Golds and diversified metals were the leading decliners. Gold fell US$2.30 an ounce to US$307.30. Place Dome fell 75¢ to $13.35; Barrick Gold dropped $1.08 to $23.90.

Inco retreated 79¢ to $25.06 and Teck Cominco declined 35¢ to $10.25.

Tech issues fell 0.94%, ahead of an earnings report from tech bellwether Cisco Systems. After the bell, Cisco reported higher fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ forecasts. Revenues also rose, but not by as much as expected by analysts.

Cognos fell $1.36 to $26.50, but Nortel added 2¢ to $1.52.
Cognicase was off 15¢ to $2.80 despite its announcement that quarterly earnings were $5.1 million, up from $2.5 million a year ago.
Among financial stocks, Bank of Montreal rose 77¢ to $35.97.
Toronto volume was 122.6 million shares as decliners outpaced advancers 585 to 419, with 194 unchanged.
The junior TSX Venture Exchange followed the lead of the bigger Toronto cousin, falling 6.67 points to 1,030.42.

In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 230.46 points at 8274.09. The Nasdaq Composite Index was 53.50 points higher at 1259.50. The S&P 500 added 24.97 points to 859.57

The Canadian dollar gained 0.03¢ from Friday to close at US63.11¢.