Interest rates dominated the news Wednesday, but it was oil prices and Coca-Cola that conspired to hold back North American markets.

At close, Toronto’ s S&P.TSX composite was off 14.57 points or 0.17% at 8354.8, while the TSX Venture Exchange held on for a 4.85-point or 0.32% gain at 1510.47. Volume on the TSX was more than 210.5 million shares.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 29.43 points or 0.28% to 10313.36, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq fell 7.92 points or 0.43% to 1850.64. The S&P 500 closed down 5.03 points or 0.45% to 1116.27.

The Canadian dollar closed down 0.24 of a cent to US77.45¢ as the Bank of Canada announced it was raising its trend-setting overnight rate by 25 basis points to 2.25%. That pushed the bank rate up to 2.5% and major charted banks followed with quarter-point jumps in their various lending rates. Economists said they expect the central bank to raise rates again next month.

The rate hike was widely expected and investors seemed more preoccupied oil prices, which fell again Wednesday after the head of producer group OPEC said the market was oversupplied, outweighing worries that powerful Hurricane Ivan could disrupt U.S. offshore oil and gas production in the coming days. U.S. light crude fell 54¢ to US$42.77 a barrel on speculative fund selling, bringing prices down 13% from August’s record high of US$49.40. London’s Brent crude fell 37¢ to US$40.39 a barrel.

The TSX energy sub-sector led the way down, falling 0.61%. Shares of Canadian natural Resources fell $1.10 or 2.55% in late trading to $42, while Suncor Energy Lost 37¢ or 0.99% to $36.93 and Petro-Canada was off 46¢ or 0.74% to $61.44.

Consumer stocks fell 0.64% with Loblaw Cos. Ltd. losing 30¢ or 0.48% at $62.17. in late trading. Shoppers Drug Mart and Jean Coutu were both down — 30¢ or 0.86% at $34.39 and 14¢ or 0.83% at $16.68, respectively. Molson Inc. was unchanged at $32.50 in heavy trading after CEO Dan O’Neill said he’s unsure whether nonvoting shareholders will back the deal to merger with Adolph Coors Co.

In New York, shares of Coca-Cola Co. weighed on the Dow and the S&P 500 indices after Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., the world’s largest bottler of Coke drinks, lowered its earnings forecast for the year.

Coca-Cola fell US$2.20, or 4.8% to $43.45. Coca-Cola Enterprises fell US$1.11to US$19.48. Coca-Cola is Coca-Cola Enterprises’ largest shareholder.

But shares of McDonald’s Corp climbed 22¢ or nearly 1% to $27.60 late in the day, after it said worldwide sales at its namesake restaurants open more than a year rose 3.9% in August.

Overall, investors appeared to be taking a wait-and-see attitude on the economy, despite Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s improved assessment. Greenspan said the economy has “regained some traction” after the summer’s slowdown, but investors looked past his congressional testimony, focusing instead on uncertainty about the health of the economy, third-quarter earnings pre-announcements and fiscal policy.

Greenspan gave no strong indications whether the Fed would raise interest rates at its meeting Sept. 21. While many analysts believe a quarter percentage point increase is likely, others wonder if election year politics will cause the Fed to skip a rate hike until November. The benchmark rate stands at 1.5%.