Better-than-expected numbers on the Canadian economy helped spark Canadian markets Friday morning, while somewhat worse-than-expected numbers on the U.S. economy left U.S. investors mostly unmoved.

At midday, the S&P/TSX was up 79.3 or 0.9% at 8860.34, while the TSX Venture exchange was off slightly, down 0.12 of a point at 1622.79. The Dow Jones industrial, after spending most of the morning in the red, pushed into positive territory; it was ahead by 10.10 or 0.10% at 10014.64. The Nasdaq was off 6.5 or 0.33% at 1969.24 and the S&P 500 was down slightly, 0.89 of a point to 1126.55.

The Canadian dollar jumped 0.20 of a cent to US81.92¢ after Statistics Canada reported Canadian gross domestic product increased by 0.5% in August after a 0.2% advance in July. That was better than the 0.3% increase economists had expected. July growth was revised upwards from 0.1%.

In Toronto, all but one of the S&P/TSX sub-indices were up, with energy (up 1.39%), financials (1.36%) and gold (1.05%) leading the way.

One of the biggest movers was Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. It soared $31.33 or 20.48% to $184.30 despite its announcement that it lost US$108.9 million US in the third quarter, mostly because of hurricane-related claims. It also said would issue US$300 million of shares.

Other bigger movers were Encan Corp., which was up $1.69 or 2.89% at $60.19 after it said it is selling its British North Sea operations to Nexen Inc. for US$2.1 billion US and wants to dispose of its businesses in Ecuador and the Gulf of Mexico as well to focus on North America. Telus Corp. jumped $1.24 or 4.22% to $30.62 after it said third-quarter profit surged 37%. Among banks, Sun Life Financial was ahead by $1 or 2.74% to $37.50 after it reported strong Q3 results on Thursday.

Energy issues got help as the price of crude oil for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange edged 28¢ higher to US$51.20 a barrel.

In New York, stocks seemed to be searching for direction as Wall Street mulled over conflicting data on the state of the U.S. economy.

In some of the final economic news to hit the tape before the Nov. 2 presidential election, the Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product grew at a less-than-expected 3.7% annual rate in the third quarter after growing 3.3% in the second quarter. Economists were expecting gross domestic product to grow 4.3%. The core inflation rate increased 0.7% annualized, the lowest in 42 years.

However, the University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index improved to 91.7 in late October from 87.5 earlier in the month. Economists were expecting a decrease to about 85.0 in late October. And a survey of purchasing managers showed stronger-than-anticipated expansion of business activity in the Chicago region in October.

Advancers and decliners were about even on the New York Stock Exchange but losers outnumbered winners 16 to 11 on the Nasdaq. Big Board volume was about 350 million shares while some 450 million shares traded on the Nasdaq.

In overseas markets, London’s FTSE 100 index traded 7.9 points lower at 4,634.9. Frankfurt’s DAX rose 0.23% and the Paris CAC 40 was flat.

Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues lost 81.70 points, or 0.75% to 10.771.42.

In Hong Kong, the main Hang Seng Index fell 58.49 points, or 0.45% to 13,054.66.