U.S. markets took the day off to celebrate Presidents Day, and many Canadian investors seemed to stay home as well.

At midday, the S&P/TSX was up 5.88 points or 0.06% at 9664.63 in lacklustre trading after gaining 39 points on Friday. The TSX Venture Exchange advanced 4.15 points or 0.21% at 1945.32. New York markets, which added almost 31 points on Friday, will re-open Tuesday.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.19 of a cent to US81.01¢. The decline came as retail sales lost ground in December, down 1.4% from than the previous month. However, most of the drop came as a result of a 2% drop in the automotive sector.

The TSX was led by financials, up 0.25%, and industrials, up 0.53%. Technology stocks were down 0.60% while gold shares were flat as a group and energy issues were up 0.10%.

Overseas, the London FTSE 100-share index was off 0.5 point at 5,056.7.

Frankfurt’s DAX 30 moved 5.21 points lower to 4,354.26 while the Paris CAC 40 eased 7.23 points lower at 4,021.79.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues closed at 11,651.02 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Monday, down 9.10 points, or 0.08%, from Friday.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index closed at 14,111.65 on Monday up 23.78 points, or 0.2%.