Energy and lower base-metal stocks lead Bay Street into the red, while Wall Street bounced back on some better-than-expected economic news.

At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index was off 49.34 points or 0.54% at 9093.64, after falling energy and metals stocks pushed the index 103.59 points lower on Tuesday. The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 8.56 points or 0.48% to 1779.06.
The Dow Jones industrial average was ahead by 22.02 points or 0.21% at 10652.80 after dropping 98.65 points the day before. The Nasdaq composite index was 6.55 points or 0.31% lower at 2101.31, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 0.72 of a point or 0.06% at 1188.77.

The Canadian dollar slid 0.10 of a cent to US81.68¢ following Tuesday’s drop of 1.41¢ as the U.S. dollar continued to rally.

In economic news, Statistics Canada said prices for manufactured goods at the plant gate posted in November their largest monthly drop since May 2003. Prices charged by manufacturers, as measured by the industrial product price index, fell 1.7 per cent, compared to October.

The agency also says raw materials prices also receded in November compared with October, as prices were down for crude oil.

The raw materials price index fell 5.3% from October to November, compared with the 4.1% increase registered the month before.

In Toronto, energy stocks led the TSX lower. They were down 0.95% as oil prices eased slightly Wednesday, down 15¢ at US$43.76 a barrel in early trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after jumping $1.79 Tuesday on renewed concerns about cold weather in the Northeast and production from Saudi Arabia.

Suncor Energy Inc. fell 1.12% to $39.65. The company said Wednesday it doesn’t know when it will be able to resume full production at its northern Alberta oilsands facility which was hit by fire a day earlier. The facility is currently running at about 110,000 barrel of oil per day, down from its full capacity of 250,000 barrels per day.



The TSX metals sector was also off, down 2.06% with Cameco Corp. among the bigger losers; its shares were off 2.7% to $40.

Only gold and telecommunications services were in the black Wednesday morning, up 0.45% and 0.85%, respectively.

In corporate news, CIBC World Markets Inc. has taken upstart dealer Genuity Capital Markets to court in an attempt to curb defections and examine its former employees’ portable e-mail devices to ensure they didn’t leave with confidential data. CIBC shares were up 0.03% to $72.28.

Two of Canada’s biggest mutual fund companies reported Tuesday net 2004 sales of $2.45 billion. IGM Financial Inc. said its Winnipeg-based Investors Group reported net sales of $217.9 million for the year, while its Toronto-based Mackenzie Financial Corp. rang up net sales of $824.5 million. CI Fund Management Inc. said its three divisions reported total sales of $1.42 billion.
IGM shares were up 0.14% to $36.15, while CI stock slipped 0.79% to $17.66.

On Wall Street, a better-than-forecast report on the U.S. service sector helped push stocks, as did higher oil prices.

U.S. investors also seemed to get over comments by the Federal Reserve Tuesday on the outlook for inflation. The Fed released minutes from a December meeting where policy makers signaled their intent to continue tightening credit when they next meet in the beginning of February, as well as other meetings later this year.

Meanwhile, the December Institute of Supply Management’s nonmanufacturing index came in at 63.1, better than forecasts of a drop to 58.5. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion. Comments regarding business in December indicate continued positive business conditions from the members surveyed, but with “continued concern for inflationary pressures,” according to the ISM report.

Overseas, Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average shed 80.23 points, or 0.7%, to end at 11,437.52.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index plunged 281.54 points, or 2.0%, to end at 13,764.36.

London’s FTSE 100 index was off 33.1 points at 4,813.9.

Frankfurt’s DAX 30 lost 27.44 points at 4,263.06 while the Paris CAC 40 was 25.94 points lower at 3,837.36.