North American markets closed lower Friday after U.S. job growth in November was far below expectations. The S&P/TSX composite index slipped 3.06 points to close at 7,990.28. For the week, the index advanced 1.7%.

The information technology index fell 1.9%, while health care stocks gained 1.4%.

Tech bellwether Nortel Networks fell 14¢ to $5.64. Graphics chip maker ATI Technologies dropped 54¢ to $19.84.

Health care’s gain was led by Hemosol, which rose 38¢ to $2.02. ID Biomedical climbed 67¢ to $16.27 and Biovail added $1.01 to $23.47.

Oil prices eased slightly from Thursday’s highs as forecasts called for warmer weather. That brought energy stocks down. EnCana fell 74¢ to $49.68; Petro-Canada dropped 60¢ to $58.24.

WestJet shares fell as much as 10% before recovering some of that loss. WestJet stock ended the day down $1.61 to $27.40. JetBlue, a U.S. discount carrier, saw its shares plunge 17% after it warned margins were being squeezed as it was forced to sell seats at lower prices.

Gold climbed US$3.10 an ounce to US$406.40, boosting the TSX gold index by1.2%.

Placer Dome gained 35¢ to $23.90; Barrick Gold climbed 28¢ to $29.60.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 68.14 points to 9,862.68.

Intel shares fell after it said it would take an unexpected US$600 million charge to account for a four-year-old acquisition.

The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 30.98 points to 1,937.82.

For the week the Dow rose 0.8%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.1%.

The Canadian dollar rose 0.41 of a cent to US76.62¢, as the weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report weighed on the greenback.