North American markets were down Thursday morning as a jump in oil prices offset some good economic news for U.S. markets and a drop in the price of gold bullion kept Canadian markets in the red.

At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index fell 20.64 points or 0.25% at 8344.16 after dropping 14.57 points Wednesday, while the junior TSX Venture Exchange was off 5.58 or 0.37% at 1504.89.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 37.01 points or 0.36% to 10276.35 after finishing 29.43 points lower Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.83 of a point or 0.04% to 1851.47 after moving down 7.92 points the day before, while the S&P 500 index was off 1.96 points or 0.18% at 1114.31.

The Canadian dollar was 0.13 of a cent higher at US77.60¢. Canadian Finance Minister
Ralph Goodale said Thursday morning that Ottawa was committed to maintaining balanced budgets even if spending on health care will increase. Two other bits of economic news, showing a 6% jump in housing prices and higher capacity utilization rates in the second quarter, may also have provided a boost for the dollar.

On Bay Street, the gold shares were lower, down 0.27% as the price of gold bullion was off $1.90 to US$397 an ounce. Placer Dome was down 44¢ to $21.93.

Financial issues were also down, by 0.46%, with all the major banks in the red.

Energy stocks were up 0.14%on news that a barrel of light crude was quoted at US$43.42, up 65¢, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In New York, the rise in oil prices dampened the good news of a sharp drop in initial unemployment claims and bullish forecasts from Nokia and Texas Instruments.

The latest Labor Department report, which showed 319,000 new claims for the past week, down 44,000 from a week ago. It was the lowest level of first-time claims since July. Wall Street also embraced improved earnings forecasts in the struggling technology sector, which had been heavily sold off through summer amid disappointing earnings and sales outlooks from major firms.

However, the latest news was not enough to convince investors that a major rally was at hand, especially as oil price rose past the $43 per barrel mark.

Nokia jumped 90¢ to US$13.61 after the Finnish maker of cellular phones raised its sales and profit outlooks for the current quarter. The company cited stronger demand for multi-function mobile devices.

Texas Instruments Inc. said it expected its third-quarter earnings to come in above the middle of its previous estimate range. The chip maker, while warning that sales could fall below its past outlook due to low demand, nonetheless gained $1.41 to US$20.24.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average dropped 1%. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.4%, Germany’s DAX index fell 0.9%, and France’s CAC-40 lost 0.7%.