Just the mere hint that things might be looking up sent investors on a buying spree today.

Big names like Yahoo, Motorola and Microsoft said that the economic slowdown might not last into next year. That was enough to unleash the bulls.

By the end of the day the Dow Jones industrial average was up 2.32%, or 237.97 points to 1,0479. The S&P 500 rose 2.37% to close at 1,208.

The Nasdaq composite index benefitted the most from today’s buying spree. It was up a massive 5.26% to close at 2,076.

In Canada the story was much the same. The TSE 300 rose steadily throughout the day to close up 100 points at 7,671.

The big trader on the TSE was Nortel, which advanced 71¢ to close at $12.66.

That gain helped the industrial products sub-index to 4.3% advance on the day. Other issues in that sector which performed well today included C-Mac, up 12.4% to close at $39.64, Celestica up 9.9% to $71.40 and RIM, up 10.9% to $45.75.

Also performing well today was metals and minerals sub-index. It advanced 2.7% today on strength in Alcan, up 3.6% to $66.20, and Sherritt, which was up 4.7% to close at $5.15.

Overall market trend was positive. Only four of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices posted lossess: consumer products, gold, oil and gas and communications and media. Among individual issues, advancers outpaced decliners 520 to 477.

Volume was relatively light, though, with only 112 million shares trading.

Nexus was up a strong 16.13% after it announced that a facial recognition system being developed by its joint venture with AND Corp, had been incorporated into an integrated chip technology by MAXIMUS Inc.

The CDNX closed flat today, moving less than a point to 3,126. Volume was light at only 25 million shares. Market trend was just about neutral with 201 issues advancing and 191 declining.

The loonie was off another 0.26% today as currency traders flock to the U.S. dollar to ride out the problems in Argentina. The loonie closed at US65.47¢.