North American markets closed mixed Wednesday as investors pulled back after two days of solid gains.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index ended the day down 9.93 points at 7,706.98.

Energy stocks were the biggest losers as the price of oil fell in New York by US$1.21 to US $28.15 US. Toronto’s energy group was down almost 2%. Husky Energy fell 44¢ to $16.76, and Suncor was down $1.29 at $27.11. EnCana Corp. lost $1.29 to $47.

Losses in information technology also weighed on Toronto stocks. Nortel Networks lost 39¢ to $3.86. There were gains, however, in Celestica, which surged $2.44 to $50.94, and ATI Technologies added 78 cents to $15.25.

Market support came from the health-care sector, which was ahead 3.12%. Biovail closed up $2.83 to $59.88 and QLT Inc. climbed 97¢ to $19.47.

Telecommunications rose 0.75% as Telus gained 58¢ to $14.80 and BCE Inc. added 36¢ to $26.61.

Teleglobe Inc. cut 850 jobs and got court protection from its creditors Wednesday, allowing it to keep operating its core long-distance phone business with US$125 million in emergency financing from parent BCE Inc. Teleglobe is saddled with a $4 billion debt.

The gold sector fell 0.65%. Barrick dropped 25¢ to $32.32 and Placer shed 11¢ to $18.99.

Toronto volume was 183.1 million shares, as decliners outnumbered advancers 556 to 533, with 215 unchanged.

The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 2.09 points to 1,157.13.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 54.32 points at 10,243.82 .The tech-heavy Nasdaq managed a gain of 6.52 points to 1,725.57. The S&P 500 index edged lower by 5.26 points to 1,091.

A report that the U.S. consumer price index rose 0.5 per cent in April, the largest increase since May of last year, seemed to foster fears of impending hikes to U.S. interest rates.

The Canadian dollar gained US0.01¢ to US64.17¢.