Toronto stocks failed to hold on to early gains Wednesday morning, while New York appeared headed for a fourth consecutive session in the black.

For the second session a row, North American markets were going in different directions. At midday, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite was down 8.15 points or 0.1% at 8224.03, while the TSX Venture Exchange was off 0.58 of a point or 0.04% at 1478.88.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was ahead 24.04 points or 0.24$ to 9996.87. The Nasdaq was up 16.73 points or 0.93% to 1811.98, while the S&P 500 was holding on to a 5.55-point or 0.51% increase at 1087.26.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.15 of a cent to US76.38.

Bay Street headed into positive territory early in the morning as tech stocks and energy issues gained ground – 0.60% and 0.39%, respectively — after leading the way lower on Tuesday. Wednesday morning it was the turn of the financials sub-group (down 0.39%) and the metals sector (down 0.85%) to lead the way lower.

Energy issues were helped by yet another jump in world oil prices, which surged to a new high of US$47 a barrel, and by some buying on weakness. Tech stocks got a boost from heavy trading in Nortel Networks Corp., which managed to recover its loss Tuesday; it was ahead 6¢ or 1.35% to $4.49 with more than eight million shares trading hands. All the big banks, except CIBC, were trading lower.

Wall Street was ahead as much as 39 points before falling back somewhat. Rising oil prices boosted energy stocks, but held back other sectors. Since the end of June, crude prices have jumped about 28%. Over the same period, the S&P 500 Index has fallen about 5%.

Investors also may have lost some of enthusiasm from news that the giant Google IPO would be coming later than expected because of delays in the approval of its registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The world’s most popular search engine forecast its stock to trade between US$85 and US$95 per share, down from previous expectations that shares would sell for US$108 to US$135. It also said the total number of shares to be sold will be cut to 19.6 million, down from 25.7 million.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average finished 0.45% higher Wednesday. In afternoon trading in Europe, France’s CAC-40 and Britain’s FTSE 100 both declined 0.55% and Germany’s DAX index was down 0.58%.