North American markets edged lower Thursday, pushed down on Bay Street by gold shares, while a sharp drop in Amazon.com Inc. shares hit Wall Street hard.

At close, the S&P/TSX index, in the red all day, was almost unchanged from Wednesday, losing 0.23 of a point at 9303.71. The TSX Venture Exchange lost 3.79 points or 0.21% to 1813.51. On Wall Street, the Nasdaq took it on the chin, losing 17.42 points or 0.84% at 2057.64, while the Dow industrial average was down slightly, slipping 3.69 points or 0.3% at 10593.10 and the S&P 500 index was off 3.30 points or 0.28% to 1189.89.

The Canadian dollar headed 0.24 of a cent lower at US80.55¢ late in the session. Ottawa has set Feb. 23 to hand down its budget for the coming year.

On the TSX, gold and technology were main culprits keeping the index in the red. Gold shares lost 1.26% as a group, while techs slid 0.95%.

Gold stocks were hit by falling bullion prices; spot prices were down dipped $4.40 to US$416.00 an ounce in New York.

Among the bigger movers within the golds was Kinross Gold Corp., which lost 34¢ to $7.86 after saying its may restate 2003 earnings after a review of $918 million of goodwill on its books.

Within the techs, Nortel Networks Corp. dropped shares 8¢ to $3.92 on volume of more than 14.6 million shares, by far the most active TSX stock. The company announced it is taking ousted CEO Frank Dunn and two former financial executives to court to recover nearly $13 million worth of bonuses linked to phantom profits.

Financial shares were flat on the day.

The mining and metals sector was the only TSX showing much life, adding 2.01%on the day, with Teck Cominco jumping $1.54 to $41.89 after a fourth-quarter profit of $285 million, helped by increased production and higher metal prices.

In New York, shares of Amazon tumbled $6.13 to US$35.75 after posting holiday-quarter net earnings that were more than four times than its profits the previous year. But the results still missed Wall Street expectations, as the bottom line was helped out by a big one-time tax benefit.

U.S. stocks were under pressure as well from a report showing U.S. productivity growth slowed in the fourth quarter.