Energy and gold stocks pulled Canadian markets into the black Wednesday morning, while U.S. markets were held back by another jump in oil prices.

At Midday, the S&P/TSX crossed into positive territory just before noon ET, advancing by 4.07 points or 0.04% to 9090.43, while the TSX Venture Exchange was ahead by 2.09 points or 0.12% to 1723.88. In New York, the Dow Jones was off 24.38 points or 0.23% to 10652.07, while the Nasdaq was down 4.32 points or 0.2% to 2155.52 and the S&P 500 had slipped 2.11 or 0.18% to 1201.27.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.74 of a cent to US81.69¢.

On Bay Street, markets spent most of the morning in the red as technology stocks depressed the TSX. The sub-group was lead lower by Nortel Networks Corp., which after markets closed Tuesday, released preliminary financial results showing the technology company lost about US$250 million in the third quarter, about half of that due to the startup costs of a major contract in India. The company also said it now expects revenues for the full 2004 financial year will be lower than adjusted revenues in 2003.

By noon, the tech group was off 3.36%, with Nortel down almost 7% to $4.27 on volume of more than 12.5 million shares. Research in Motion also slipped 5.3% to $99.32as investors digested Tuesday’s announcement that that a U.S. appeals court partly upheld a ruling against the company, maker of the BlackBerry mobile communications device, in a patent infringement case.

But as oil prices moved up, so too did the heavily weighted TSX oil group, which was ahead by 0.88%. Oil futures prices rose more than US$1 a barrel Wednesday after government data showed a slight decline in U.S. supplies of crude and heating oil and as colder weather descended on the northeastern United States, presumably driving up demand for home-heating fuels. After the Energy Department’s latest petroleum supply report was released, benchmark light, sweet crude futures were up $1.28 at US$43.10 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. January Brent crude was up 60¢ at US$39.85 on the International Petroleum Exchange.

The TSX gold group also helped pull the markets up, adding more than 2% as gold prices rose in Europe in late afternoon fixings.

In New York, stocks sagged as rising oil prices muted Wall Street’s excitement over strong results from Lehman Brothers and Sprint’s much-rumored acquisition of Nextel Communications.

Analysts attributed some of the selling pressure to profit-taking, as the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Nasdaq composite hovered near three-year highs. A spate of merger and acquisition activity and mixed economic numbers has made for a complicated market, said analysts.

Telecommunications giant Sprint Corp. 2.15% to US$24.56, on the widely expected announcement that it would acquire Nextel Communications Inc. in a US$35-billion deal. Nextel was down 1.73% to US$29.47

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average added 0.37%. In afternoon trading in Europe, France’s CAC-40 shed 0.18%, Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.20% and Germany’s DAX index was down 0.27%.