After hours markets are busy south of the border as Microsoft reported on market close that it met revised targets and Sun Microsystems reported it beat expectations.

Earlier in the day IBM and Dell reported good earnings, and left investors in a good, but not great, mood.

In Canada, the TSE 300 peaked early in the morning, and drifted through the day until finally closing up a slight 22 points at 7,642.

Even though Nortel Network’s credit rating was cut yesterday to just a few notches above junk bond status, investors seemed to have some faith in the issue, bidding it up 30¢ on hopes that the news wouldn’t be as bad as the company announced it was going to be.

Nortel closed at $11.90. When the company finally reported after the bell, the story was as the company said it would be. Nortel delivered a second-quarter loss of $19.4 billion and still declined to give a forecast.

Also trading heavily today was Celestica, which was the target of bargain hunters after it sold off in the wake of yesterday’s negative earnings report. It closed up $2.70 at $66.71.

Itemus was the most active stock on the exchange today, and it crashed huge after reporting last night that recent financing efforts have not been successful. After 18 million shares had traded today, it was off 43% at 4¢.

C-Mac was also heavily traded today and ended the day off $2.28 at $35.29.

Among the seven of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices that advanced, industrial products, oil and gas, and conglomerates were the leaders.

Overall, market trend among individual issues was split, with 514 issues advancing and 503 declining on volume of 128 million shares.

The CDNX closed ahead five points at 3,095 on volume of 32 million shares. Market trend was slightly negative with 211 issues declining and 187 advancing.

The loonie continued to suffer today, dropping a tenth of a cent to close down 0.11% at US64.88¢.

In New York, the Nasdaq composite index was up 1.51% to 2,047, a gain of 30 points. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 40 points to10, 610, while the S&P 500 was up 7 points at 1,215.