Canadian markets head south Thursday morning as falling oil prices sent the Toronto Stock Exchange to a second-consecutive day of triple digit losses but helped curtail losses on Wall Street.

At midday, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 110.83 points or 1.13% at 9684.31 after losing 108.2 points Wednesday. The TSX Venture Exchange had lost 50.34 points or 2.50% at 1959.62. Wall Street’s Dow industrial average was up most of the morning, before slipping into the red and ending up slightly ahead by 0.44 of a point at 1806.06; it fell 107 points in the previous session. The Nasdaq was down 13.53 points or 0.66% to 2047.76. The decline comes five years to the day after the dot-com boom propelled the index to its all-time high of 5,048. After the boom, the Nasdaq fell all the way down to 1,114 in October 2002. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped 2.29 points or 0.19% at 1204.72.

The Canadian dollar continued to rise on widespread U.S. dollar weakness. The C$ was at US83¢, up 0.05 in the morning after running up 0.6 of a cent Wednesday and a full U.S. cent the day before.

A barrel of light crude was quoted at US$54.25, down 52¢, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That prompted many investors to take profits a day after reaching near-record highs. The S&P/TSX energy group was down 3.16%. Only consumer stocks and health care stocks were in the black. Mining stocks also were hit hard, losing 2.26% in morning trading.

In New York, stocks were mixed as investors digested a surprise jump in jobless claims and a new drop in dollar. Falling oil prices, which contributed to the previous session’s selloff, helped offset some concerns about inflation.

The increase in first-time jobless claims unnerved some investors, but also eased fears that inflation would rise as more workers enter the job market. The Labor Department reported a jump of 17,000 claims last week, to 327,000 — the highest level in two months.

Inflation worries were bolstered, however, as the dollar fell to a nine-week low against the euro. However, falling crude oil prices helped investors keep losses minimal.

The technology sector was under scrutiny as investors awaited two key reports from semiconductor companies. Dow component Intel Corp. fell 32¢ to $24.52 prior to its mid-quarter earnings update, due after the session. And National Semiconductor Inc. was down 12¢ to $19.87 ahead of its quarterly earnings announcement at 12:15 p.m. EST. National Semi was expected to earn 16¢ per share, according to Wall Street analysts, down from 23¢ per share a year ago.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.85%. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.42%, Germany’s DAX index lost 0.38%, and France’s CAC-40 slid 0.27%.