Toronto stocks edged down Friday, as a drop in the energy sector offset gains in the information technology group

The S&P/TSX composite index finished down 10.98, or 0.10%, to 10,722.10.

Volume on the senior exchange was 226 million shares.

Seven of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were up, with the IT sector gaining 0.83%.

Nortel Networks gained 11¢, or 3.12%, to $3.63.

Crude for December delivery ended down 20¢ at US$56.14 a barrel, after trading briefly below US$56. The energy group was off 1.08%.

Petro Canada fell 15¢, or 0.36%, to $41.35. Canadian Natural Resources lost $1.20, or 2.18%, to $53.80, while Husky Energy fell 71¢, or 1.25%, to $56.05, and Imperial Oil dropped $1.31, or 1.2%, to $107.45..

Gold for December delivery fell $1.40 to US$485.50 after reaching an intra-day high of US$489.50, its highest level since December 1987. The gold sector lost 0.28%.

Barrick Gold Corp. said it has won an apology and an undisclosed payment in a libel case over accusations from a U.S. company that Barrick conspired to manipulate the gold market.

Barrick shares dipped 10¢, closing at $31.70.

Financials were essentially flat in today’s session, moving up 0.04%.

Bank of Nova Scotia was off 6¢, or 0.13%, to $4.68.

The Canadian dollar was slipped 0.26 of a cent to US84.03¢ as wholesale sales lost momentum in September for the second time in three months, falling 0.1%.

The junior S&P/TSX venture exchange finished up 7.65, or 0.38%, to 2,028.42.

In New York, acquisitions news from Cisco Systems and Swiss Re, which is buying GE’s insurance business, plus a positive earnings report from Hewlett-Packard lifted markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 44.43 points, or 0.41%, at 10,764.65.

The S&P500 Index was up 5.47 points, or 0.44%, at 1,248.27, while the Nasdaq composite index was up 6.61 points, or 0.30%, at 2,227.07. Both indices closed at four-and-a-half-year highs.

For the week, the Dow gained 0.8%, the S&P500 was up 1.1%, and the Nasdaq also rose 1.1%.