Toronto markets drifted into negative territory Monday morning, while U.S. were up slightly as investors welcomed a small burst of big-ticket merger news, but kept a wary eye on high oil prices.

At midday, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 10.96 points or 0.12% at 9511.78. The junior TSX Venture Exchange was up 1.85 or 0.11% at 1697.30.

On Wall Street, the Dow industrials added 9.46 points or 0.09% at 10354.86 while the Nasdaq composite was up 3.07 points or 0.16% at 1970.42 and the S&P 500 index was ahead by 3.31 or 0.28% to 1174.56.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.26 of a cent to US80.79¢ after Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. announced the housing sector remained strong last month, thanks to low unemployment and mortgage rates. CMHC said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was just over 230,000 units. That’s up 5.5 per cent from March.

Crude futures were higher on heightened speculation that U.S. refineries will be unable to match demand in the later half of the year. U.S. light crude (CLc1) was up 8¢ to US$51.04 a barrel.

In New York, mergers were making news as U.S. power company Duke Energy Corp. agreed to buy Cinergy Corp. in a US$9-billion stock deal to expand its utility business. Meanwhile, the rapidly consolidating online stock trading business took another step forward as E*Trade Financial Corp. made a formal offer to buy Ameritrade Holding Corp., according to The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.