Technology and financial shares pulled down Canadian markets on Monday, while oil prices hit a record high pushing the Dow Jones industrials back below 10,000.

At close, the S&P/TSX was down 90.44 points or 1.05% to 8497.96, while the TSX Venture exchange was up 2.20 points or 0.14% at 1556.14. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 58.70 points or 0.58% at 9988.54 — the Dow’s lowest close since Aug. 17, when it last closed below 10,000.

The Nasdaq was 19.6 points or 1.04% lower at 1859.88; the S&P 500 had declined 6.59 points or 0.49% to 1103.52.

The Canadian dollar was ahead 0.18 of a cent to US78.60¢ late in the day.

In Toronto, a downgrade of perennial most-active Nortel Networks Corp. sent the stock lower. It fell 20¢ or 4.61% to $4.14 with more than 13 million shares trading hands after New York-based Prudential Equity Group LLC. cut Nortel to “neutral” from “overweight.” Prudential said Nortel “appears to have lost momentum.” Overall, the tech sector fell 1.59%.

Financial shares also fell sharply as a group, losing 1.53% with most of the major players in decline.

Gold shares were the ones to finish in the black as the price of gold jumped $2.57 in late London trading to $US409.30. Energy issues were off 0,63% despite the jump in oil prices.

Elsewhere, Bombardier B shares advanced 8¢ of 2.85% to $2.89 on volume of more than 7.3 million shares. Air Canada announced Monday a revised deal with aircraft maker Bombardier on Monday that includes fewer firm orders. The deal is worth at least US$821.2 million with the prospect of growing to as much as US$2.45 billion.

In New York, trading was light and losses only moderate, a sign traders took to mean investors were coming to terms with near-US$50 per barrel crude.

A barrel of light crude for November delivery settled at US$49.62, up 74¢, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Monday’s close for crude broke the previous record settlement price of US$48.88 set Friday, and prices reached US$49.75 earlier in the session, marking the highest intra-day trading level ever recorded.

However, analysts believed that Wall Street, which sold off substantially last week in response to oil’s climb, had found a bottom and that some investors believed a year-end rally might be possible.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.26 billion shares, compared with 1.25 billion on Friday.