Good news on the U.S. jobs front tempered the bad news about weak U.S. manufacturing, leaving U.S. markets directionless for much of the day. Nevertheless, buyers appeared in the afternoon and by the closing bell the major North American markets were all ahead.

The TSE 300 had a strong day finishing ahead 89 points at 8,251.

Support came from all sectors as only the communications and media sub-index was down on the day. On the upside, gold led with a 2.2% advance, while the real estate was up 2%. The metals and minerals sub-index was up 1.8%, while consumer products and financial services climbed 1.4% and industrial products rose 1.3%.

Among individual issues, market trend was strongly positive. Advancers outpaced decliners 600 to 442. Volume was low at 163 million shares.

Gulf Canada was again the most heavily traded issue on the day, with 58 million shares of the oil producer changing hands today.

The banks were also popular on news that Bill C-8 was approved by the Senate banking committee. The talk is that the number of banks will be allowed to shrink to four, but not three. Investors seem to think any deals will involve Bank of Montreal. It advanced 5% today to close at $40.95.

All the banks were heavily traded, though, with Bank of Nova Scotia up 1.53% at $45.03, TD up 1.93% at $40.72, and CIBC up 2.27% at $51.39. All were among the top ten most heavily traded issues today. Royal slipped slightly, dropping 0.39% at $48.75.

Management changes at Rogers wireless seem to be having some effect, stock in the company was up 4.35% today at $19.41.

News that Celestica plans on acquiring shares of Primetech helped out the share price of the company. Shares in Primetech were up 6.25% at $17.00. Celestica was up 3.33% to $79.10 on general tech strength. RIM was up 9.96% today to close at $55.09.

Volume was also low on the Canadian Venture Exchange where only 31 million shares were traded over the day. Nevertheless, the CDNX finished up 19 points at 3,352. Market trend was positive with 282 issues advancing and 195 declining.

The good news about the Canadian economy seems to be spreading, and the loonie continued to strengthen today. It climbed 0.34% to close at US65.23ยข

On Wall Street, the major U.S. indices posted modest gains. The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 78 points at 10,990, and the S&P 500 inched up 5 points to 1,261.

There was some strength in techs today. That helped the Nasdaq composite index to a strong advance on the day. It climbed 38 points to finish at 2,149, a gain of 1.85%.