Gains in the information technology sector kept the Toronto stock market in the black Friday morning, offsetting early losses among energy and gold stocks, while profit takers drove U.S. markets into the red.

At midday, the Toronto stock market was up 29.22 points or 0.30% at 9654.57, while the TSX Venture Exchange was down 0.68 of a point or 0.04% at 1848.57.

On Wall Street, the Dow industrial average fell 44.05 points or 0.42% lower at 10502.27. The Nasdaq was off 10.49 points or 0.52% at 2008.30 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped 4.72 points or 0.40% lower to 1186.42.

The Canadian dollar was 0.12 of a cent lower at US81.65¢.

The currency was hit by a Statistics Canada report that job growth in Canada came in far lower than expected last month, with the economy cranking out only 4,400 new jobs, compared with 15,000 that economists had widely expected. Lingering damage caused by the higher Canadian dollar was likely behind the weak numbers. But the jobless rate fell one-10th of a point to a four-year low of 6.9 per cent – due to a drop in the number of people looking for work.

Economists noted that there was nothing in the jobless report to suggest the Bank of Canada will move to raise interest rates anytime soon.

Meanwhile, oil prices fell for the fifth straight day Friday, dropping more than US$1 a barrel as gasoline futures tumbled and brokers said the red-hot market went too high, too fast. After dropping as much as US$1.01 a barrel in electronic trading, light, sweet crude for May delivery fell 81¢ to US$53.30 a barrel in morning trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude futures are roughly US$5 below the intraday record set Monday.

On the TSX, tech shares led the way early, holding on to a group gain of 0.55% by midday. They were led by strong advance by Research In Motion Ltd., which was up $1.91 or 2.55% to $76.97 on volume of more than 5.4 million shares.

Despite the drop in oil prices, the TSX energy sector was up 0.23% after spending most of the morning in the red. Gold shares also rebounded despite gold prices showing weakness — gold in late London fixing was off 95¢ to US$425.75.

Financials stocks were up as a whole 0.41%.

In New York, profit-taking after a week of gains kept stocks mixed Friday even as oil prices continued their retreat and two big cable operators reportedly agreed on a bid for bankrupt Adelphia Communications Corp.

Wall Street welcomed media reports that Time Warner Inc. and Comcast Corp. have teamed up in an $18 billion bid for Adelphia, in which a combined Time Warner/Adelphia cable company would be spun off into a public company. Time was up 30¢ or 1.68% to US$18.18; Comcast was up 3¢ or 0.09% to US$33.31.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.54%. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.19%, Germany’s DAX index gained 0.36%, and France’s CAC-40 climbed 0.3%.