Rising oil and gold prices pushed Toronto markets higher Tuesday morning, but sent New York sharply lower as U.S. investors returned from their Presidents Day holiday.

At midday, the Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 43.11 points or 0.45% at 9725.42, after gaining 24 points on Monday. The TSX Venture Exchange added 4.83 points or 0.25% to 1959.11. In New York, the Dow Jones industrials were down 50.32 points or 0.47% at 10734.90. The tech-intensive Nasdaq lost 3.92 points or 0.19% at 2054.70 while the S&P 500 index dipped 3.92 points or 0.33% at 1197.67.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.26 of a cent to US81.31¢ as the U.S. dollar fell against other currencies. The rise in the C$ came as Statistics Canada reported the annual inflation rate came in at 2% in January, down from 2.1% in December. It was also lower than the 2.2% rise that had been expected.

In Toronto, gold and other mining stocks led the jump on the TSX. Gold futures extended their rally Tuesday, breaking above a trading range seen over the last six weeks in a reflection of the U.S. dollar’s selloff. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for April delivery surged US$7.10 to stand lately at US$435.50 an ounce. Silver and platinum futures also were up. The TSX gold sub-group added 3.4% while metals and mining group jumped 2.29% and materials shares were up 1.61%.

Energy shares jumped 1.27% as the price of oil pushed past the US$50 level. April crude futures were last up $1.79 to US$50.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Financial stocks were off 0.05% as a group with Bank of Montreal shares down 4¢ to $56.66 despite reporting quarterly earnings of $602 million, up 15% from a year ago. That translated into $1.16 a share, 7¢ a share better than analysts’ expectations.

In New York, the rise in crude-oil prices sent U.S. stocks sharply lower but the major indices climbed off their worst levels as a bullish broker call lifted technology stocks such as Intel and Cisco Systems.

Investors were also greeted with a less-than-positive reading on U.S. consumer confidence. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index dipped to 104.0 this month, down from a revised 105.1 in January, as optimism about business conditions over the next six months declined. However, the showing was better than the 103.5 reading for January that economists had expected.

Overseas, Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average of 225 selected issues fell 53.31 points, or 0.46%, to close at 11,597.71 points.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 21.13 points, or 0.2%, to 14,090.52.

London’s FTSE 100 index fell 34.4 points to 5,026.4.

Frankfurt’s DAX 30 was down 32.23 points at 4,321.11 while the Paris CAC 40 was 26.57 points lower at 3,996.05.