Some big corporate news and a mix of economic data has markets trading to a draw today. At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index is little changed, up just three points to 8,180.

U.S. consumer inflation data came in on the strong side for April. Economists say this makes a June rate hike a virtual certainty. Also, industrial production and capacity utilization numbers confirmed the strong recovery story.

In Canada, factory order data blew away expectations, suggesting that the strong U.S. rebound is pulling Canada along for the ride..

Despite all the news, Toronto volume remains quite weak at 109 million shares, with selling action outpacing the buying by a 54:47 margin. Market breadth is close to dead even.

The sector picture is split fairly evenly, too. Techs are the big loser, down almost 3%, dragged lower by more bad news from Nortel.

There is also weakness in miners, industrials, consumer staples and telecoms.

Energy stocks are higher after oil hit an all-time high earlier today. Golds and consumer discretionary stocks are up, too.

Despite the sector trends, it’s the market’s big stories are producing the big trading action. Telus’ surprise $1.1 billion hostile bid for Microcell is sparking huge action there, with Microcell up 47% in big volume. Traders are speculating that rival bidders may emerge to rump Telus.

On the downside, Nortel has lost more than 6% in heavy trading of 18 million shares on news that it has received a federal grand jury subpoena for certain documents, including financial statements, and corporate, personnel and accounting records due to a continuing criminal investigation being conducted by the United States Attorney’s Office in Dallas.

Celestica and Sierra Wireless are down, too.

Traders are voting thumbs down on the disclosure that Gildan executives are monetizing some of their holdings in the firm. The stock has dropped 2.4% in heavy trading after it reported that two execs are monetizing about 3.3 million shares, or 11% of the company’s class A shares.

EnCana is leading the energy group higher, as oil continues to skyrocket. It has jumped 2.3% in active trading. It is joined by Petro Canada, and Canadian Natural Resources.

Gold stocks are generally stronger too, led by a 2% rise in Kinross and a 1.5% lift for Placer Dome. There is also lots of buying in names such as Nevsun, Lionore Mining, Cambior, Glamis Gold, Blackrock and Bema Gold.

Bema is up 4% despite news that it reported a net loss of $14.2 million for the first quarter. The loss during the quarter was due mainly to a non-operating writedown of $8.5 million in the carrying value of a property in Arizona, a warehouse fire, and the high operating costs at mines in South Africa.

However, these gains are coming at the expense of names such as Queenstake, Crystallex, Eldorado Gold and Tahera.

Queenstake posted Q1 earnings of US$6.6 million. Crystallex saw a Q1 loss of US$6.7 million. Eldorado Gold lost US$633,000 in Q1.

Other gainers include Alcan, BCE, and Rogers Wireless. The losers group includes Cott, Bioscrypt and Retirement REIT.

The bank stocks remain busy, but are trading in a narrow range. Scotia is down 0.6%, Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal have dropped 0.4%, and CIBC is down a little, too. TD Bank and Manulife are higher

In other earnings news, First Calgary posted a Q1 loss of US$2.3 million. Viking Energy earned $16.6 million in Q1. Petrobank Energy lost $2.24 million in Q1. NQL Drilling said its quarterly loss decreased to $946,000. Enterra Energy earned $2.6 million in Q1. Also, Bonavista Energy earned $51.8-million in the first quarter.

Finally, ID Biomedical recorded a net loss of $10.7-million, compared with a net loss of $4.3-million in 2003.

In New York, the indexes have gyrated up and down all day. At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is down nine points to 10,002. The Nasdaq composite index is 21 ticks lower at 1,905.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index is similarly moribund, down just a single point to 1,545. Volume is light there too at 23 million shares, led by International Petroreal Oil Corp., which is down a penny to 99¢ on 1.3 million shares.