The so-called Santa rally continued on Wall Street Wednesday morning, while Bay Street showed a little less cheer as oil prices moved lower.

At midday, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was up slightly, by 5.45 points or 0.06% to 9242.93 after spending the morning in the red and after posting a 60-point gain Tuesday. The TSX Venture Exchange lost 3.5 or 0.20% at 1743.18. The Dow Jones Industrial Average marked fresh 3.5-year highs, climbing 45.09 points or 0.42% to 10804.52 while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 6.35 points or 0.30% to 2157.26 and the S&P 500 rose 3.88 points or 0.32% to 1209.33.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.61 of a cent at US80.62¢.

In Toronto, the culprit once again was oil prices. February crude futures were last down US$1.66 at US$44.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, tumbling after the Energy Department said both crude and distillate supplies rose in the latest week. Most analysts had expected declines in both crude and distillate stocks.

The TSX energy group was the big loser, falling 1.30%, with information technology stocks also off, 0.22%, as a group. Financials were up 0.88% while gold stocks added 0.17% despite gold futures falling US$1.00 to US$441.90 an ounce in New York.

Shares in Research In Motion were down almost 4% to $102.69 on the TSX after the company reported Tuesday a more than five-fold profit increase in the past quarter and raised forecasts for the current quarter as sales of its BlackBerry e-mail device surge. RIM earned US$90.4 million or 46¢ a share in its third quarter ended Nov. 27. That compared with a year-ago profit of US$16.3 million or 10¢ per share.

Among other active traders, Bombardier Inc. lost 0.91% to $2.18, while Nortel Networks Corp. added 0.97% to $4.15. More than three million shares of each stock had traded hands by noon ET.

On Wall Street, stocks got a boost from the dip in crude-oil prices and from some positive economic news. The Commerce Department revised third-quarter GDP growth up to a 4% annual rate from the 3.9% previously reported, largely due to a decrease in estimated imports. Economists were expecting Q3 GDP to remain unrevised at a 3.9% rate.

Among movers and shakers, Pfizer Inc. was up 3.32% to US$25.80 as the pharmaceutical giant continued to recoup losses suffered after recent problems with its Celebrex Arthritis drug.

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae dismissed its CEO Franklin Raines and CFO Timothy Howard in the wake of accounting errors that will force a massive earnings restatement. Analyst reaction to the news was mostly positive. Fannie Mae shares climbed 2.56% to US$72.15.

In overseas markets, London’s FTSE 100 index was up 43.7 points at 4,776.7.

Frankfurt’s DAX 30 was up 0.47 %, while the Paris CAC 40 was up 0.74%.

The Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues advanced 83.52 points, or 0.75 % to 11209.44 points. Traders were encouraged by the rise of U.S. markets on Tuesday, buying technology and banking shares.

In Hong Kong, the share market dropped slightly as traders continued to sell stocks that had gained recently. The blue-chip Hang Seng Index lost 29.71 points or 0.21%, finishing at 14151.08.