God and resource stocks helped keep Toronto in positive territory but U.S. markets fell back after a weak U.S. retail report, coupled with a disappointing outlook from computer chip giant Intel.

At shortly after midday, the S&P/TSX composite index was up 20 points or 0.24% at 8472.62, while the TSX Venture exchange was basically unchanged, trading ahead 2.06 points or 0.13% to 1561.51.
On Wall Street, the Dow industrials dropped 8.34 points 0.08% to 10239.25 after edging 9.37 points higher the day before. The Nasdaq was off 6.18 points or 0.32% at 1925.48 on top of Tuesday’s 5.26-point dip, while the S&P 500 index lost less than a point at 1115.06.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.19 of a cent at US75.63¢. U.S. retail sales dropped 1.1% in June as shoppers dealt with bad weather and higher gasoline prices. The drop was the largest in 16 months and followed a 1.4 per cent surge in May. Analysts had expected June U.S. retail sales to slip 0.7 per cent last month.

In Toronto markets, gold and energy shares boosted the market — gold shares were up 0.77% as the price of bullion rose US$2.40 to US$404.10 an ounce; energy stocks gained 0.55% ahead of the weekly U.S. Department of Energy report on energy inventories

But the market was already in a selling mood after Intel warned of lower profit margins in future, even as it turned in second-quarter earnings that were nearly double the level of a year ago. But investors boosted the market by taking advantage of low tech stock prices, many trading at their lowest point in two months. The Dow was ahead more than 20 points during the morning before falling back.

Overseas, Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues fell 251.97 points, or 2.17%, closing at 11,365.65.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 145.50 points, or 1.2%, to 11,932.83.

London’s FTSE 100 retreated 6.7 points at 4,351.

Frankfurt’s DAX 30 slipped 0.75% while the Paris CAC 40 gave up 0.77%.