Today on Stockhouse

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Chris Vermeulen discusses some tips for trading gold and gold stocks.

Gold, silver an easy way to play coming commodities boom: Rakhimov, from The Gold Report.

U.S. Steel May 25/35 strangles being scooped up, says Jud Pyle.

Danny Deadlock does it one last time.

For more articles on gold and silver, please visit the Stockhouse gold & silver feature supplement: http://www.stockhousefeatures.com/gold-and-silver/

Buzz on the Boards visited the Teck Cominco (TSX: TCK.B, Stock Forum) and Zarlink Semiconductor (TSX: T.ZL, Stock Forum) Bullboards.

Top Bullboards post: “This market is dead like the silence right before lightning strikes your roof and the thunder blows you out of bed. Something big is about to happen. BAC announced record earnings and fell 25%. Gold and silver are stuck in a tiny range, along with the major indices. A few silver-oriented juniors on my screens are edging toward the roof stairs. A harbinger? Maybe [sic].” – From gabrielgray on the Minera Andes (TSX: T.MAI, Stock Forum) Bullboard.

Top Bullboard: The MedMira Inc. (TSX: V.MIR, Stock Forum) Bullboard was the most popular board on Stockhouse Tuesday.

Top blog: Markets tried to dip again Tuesday but bulls reigned yet again, says ghost11 on the Ghost Trader2 blog.

For news about small stocks that made big moves in Tuesday trading, please read the Stockhouse Canadian Small and Micro-cap Stock Report.

Word on Wall Street

"Corporate profits are under severe pressure," Richard Cookson, head of asset allocation research at HSBC told MarketWatch. "[S]imply extrapolating the fact that the economy may be over the worst to say corporate profits will jump is a stretch. They're going to fall hard this year."

Today In The Markets

Stock markets close higher despite shaky U.S. earnings, Bank of Canada gloom

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TORONTO, NEW
YORK (CP) - Stock markets ended in positive territory Tuesday despite weak U.S. corporate earnings reports and a warning by the Bank of Canada that the recession will be deeper than it previously predicted.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index ended higher by 121.02 points at 9,247.17, reversing an early slide that followed the central bank's decision to cut its key policy rate by a quarter-point to 0.25 per cent in an effort to jolt the economy into life. The TSX Venture Exchange lost 1.05 points to 974.38.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 127.83 points to 7,969.56. The Nasdaq composite index increased 35.64 to 1,643.83 while the S&P 500 index added 17.69 points to 850.08.

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After-Hours News

Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) After Tuesday’s close, the Internet search firm said first-quarter net income fell 78% to $117.6 million, or eight cents a share, from $536.8 million, or 37 cents a share, a year ago. Net revenue fell to $1.2 billion. Analysts expected earnings of eight cents a share on $1.2 billion in revenue. Yahoo also said it will reduce its workforce by 5%.

Aastra Technologies (TSX: T.AAH) The provider of enterprise communication solutions, after Tuesday’s closing bell, reported first-quarter net earnings of $14.1 million, or $1.02 earnings per share, compared with $5.3 million, or 33 cents a share, during the same period last year. Sales for the quarter were $219.3 million compared to $140 million for the same quarter in 2008.