Falling prices for crude oil and gold took the wind out of the sails of Canadian stocks, but blew U.S. markets into positive waters Thursday morning.

At midday, the S&P/TSX was down 27.23 points or 0.3% to 9037.24 after closing up 34.42 points Wednesday. The TSX Venture Exchange lost 35.99 points or 2.05% to 1719.86. In New York, the Dow industrials were ahead by 13.74 points or 0.13% top 10603.96 after slipping close to 30 points in the first hour of the session. The Dow rose 162.2 points the day before. The Nasdaq was up9.35 points or 0.44% at 2147.58 after moving up 41.42 points on Wednesday; the S&P 500 index edged ahead 1.75 points or 0.15% at 1193.12.

The Canadian dollar was trading at US84.03¢, down 0.45 of a cent from Wednesday.

Canadian markets were hit by a double whammy as gold reversed course to fall as much as US$6 an ounce in New York. February gold was down $5.90 at US$450.20 an ounce after a low at US$449.50, its lowest in a week. It traded as high as $457.70 earlier. Meanwhile, crude-oil futures fell under US$44 a barrel to trade back at mid-September levels as last week’s climb in U.S. distillate inventories combined with near-term forecasts for mild weather throughout much of the nation to ease heating-fuel concerns. January crude was down $2.09 at US$43.40 a barrel. January heating oil is at $1.277 a gallon and January unleaded gas is at $1.152 a gallon, with both contracts down around 4%.

On the TSX, the gold sub-index was down 3.45% while energy stocks were off 2.84%.

Financial shares traded up 0.76% but were held back by CIBC which fell $1.15 or 1.57% to $71.95 after it reported Thursday its quarterly profit fell by 14% due to a $300-million charge related to litigation over loans to American energy trading firm Enron. National Bank, which reported a 22% jump in profit for the fourth quarter. was up 65¢ or 1.36% to $48.41.

In New York, U.S. stocks edged higher as a fresh fall in crude-oil prices eased some of the disappointment over an uneven sales performance from retailers in November.

ExxonMobil was a notable decliner, sliding 1.4% on the pullback in oil prices.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Labour Department reported new filings for unemployment insurance increased by a seasonally adjusted 25,000 to 349,000 for the week ending Nov. 27, which included the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday. Some analysts were expecting a smaller rise of around 7,000.

Overseas, Tokyo’s Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues advanced 188.82 points, or 1.75% to 10973.07 points.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index added 98.99 points, or 0.7% closing at 14261.79 – its highest finish since March 6, 2001.

London’s FTSE 100 index edged 3.8 points higher to 4739.5.

Frankfurt’s DAX 30 rose 8.27 points at 4194.3 and the Paris CAC 40 was up 6.44 points at 3,803.15.