Stocks opened higher Wednesday, but the session has been choppy. At mid-afternoon, the S&P/TSX index is up 24 points to 6,679.

Midday volume was at 73.9 million shares, with buying ahead of the selling by about 21:13. Market breadth is more or less neutral.

The sector split is fairly even today too, with gains coming in the techs, health care and diversified names. Consumer discretionary stocks are up, while consumer staples are down. There’s also weakness in golds, real estate, materials and energy.

Financials are posting a slight gain today, and they are also moving the bulk of the market cap. CIBC is leading trading, down almost 2% after it announced earnings of $193 million for its latest quarter, down more than 50% from the same period a year ago. The news is boosting the stock of Royal Bank, TD Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia. Manulife Financial continues its slide though.

Bombardier continues its long recovery, up another 1.7% today. There are also notable gains in techs such as Nortel Networks, Zarlink, ATI, and Ballard Power. Biovail and QLT are leading the health care group higher.

Other gainers include Shaw Communications and Air Canada.

Barrick Gold is leading on the downside, dropping 2% so far today. TVX Gold, Kinross, Goldcorp and Newmont Mining are all weaker.

BCE is sliding a bit, and there are losses in EnCana, SNC Lavalin, Metro, Dofasco and Cameco.

In other earnings news, Battery Technologies reported a net loss for the first half ended of $1,362,800, compared with the same period last year, which was a loss of $842,000.

Eiger Technology Inc pared its losses to $1.1 million in 2002

And, World Heart Corp. said its net loss for the second quarter this year was $9,853,918,compared with $12,914,210 last year.

The Dow Jones industrial average sold off after an early gain, but has recovered. It is up 64 points to 8,937. The S&P 500 has added 10 points to 947. The Nasdaq composite index has gained 24 points to 1,401.

The split market has the S&P/TSX Venture index more or less unchanged at midday. The index up just two points at 1004 on light volume of 9.2 million shares. World Wise Technology is the top trader, flat at 6¢ on 245,000 shares.