Yesterday’s rate cut and the pro-Microsoft court ruling set the stage for positive advances on all North American markets today. In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 1.26% to 10566. The NASDAQ composite index added 2.45%, ending the day at 2126. The S&P 500 rose 1.25% to 1226.

Here in Canada, the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index couldn’t quite keep up, but it did put on 0.92% to close up at 7600.

Among the sub-sectors there was good headway amomg the utilities and consumer products, which both ended up 2.3%. Also ahead was the industrial products subsector with a 2% gain and transportation with a 1.9% gain. Overall, eight sectors advanced and six declined. The downside was led by the gold sector, which finished the day down 2.2%.

The big trader of the day was Laidlaw, which filed for bankruptcy. After 12 million shares traded, it ended the day off another 6¢ at 11¢ a share.

Announced layoffs and cutbacks at Linmor Inc., resulted in a strong 14.58% jump in its share price. After heavy trading it closed at 27¢.

Corel surprised the market yesterday by announcing a slight second-quarter profit yesterday. That put Corel on the most active list today for the first time in a long time and sent the share price up 16% to $4.42.

Volume was 161 million shares. Market trend among individual issues was fairly neutral today, with 572 issues advancing and 530 declining.

On the CDNX, the split was almost equal with 229 shares declining and 221 advancing. The small cap exchange finished the day down seven points to close at 3190. That was on light volume of 36.8 million shares.

The Canadian dollar dropped almost half a cent today, declining 0.42% to close at US65.66¢.