Indicators were mixed for North American stock markets Tuesday as Canada’s inflation rate dropped and Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley reported a big jump in profit.

Statistics Canada reported that a smaller rise in the price of gasoline at the pump in November held the annual inflation rate down to 2%, compared with 2.6% in October.

The Canadian dollar, which had been expecting slower inflation, opened Tuesday at US85.43¢, down 0.09 of a cent from Monday’s close.

South of the border, new home construction rose by more than expected in November, showing strength across the country despite rising costs of financing and building materials.

Housing starts increased 5.3% to a seasonally adjusted 2.123 million annual rate, the U.S. Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Separately, U.S. wholesale prices fell in November by the sharpest amount in two and a half years, as energy prices declined for the first time in six months.

The producer price index for finished goods fell 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis last month, retracing an unrevised 0.7% increase in October, the U.S. Labor Department said today.

In today’s earnings news, Investment bank Morgan Stanley said its profit rose 49%, as the firm joined its rivals in reporting strong earnings, driven by a 47% gain in revenue from institutional securities.

Morgan Stanley also said it is buying the Goldfish credit-card operations from U.K. bank Lloyds TSB for about US$1.76 billion.

In other business news, Petro-Canada is selling oil and gas assets in Syria to a joint venture between India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. and the China National Petroleum Corp. for $676 million.

Crude oil prices rose this morning, ahead of a U.S. Department of Energy report likely to show a dip in U.S. petroleum inventories. Light sweet crude for January delivery rose 31¢ to US$57.80 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe.

Overseas, Asian shares closed mixed, with the Nikkei 225 Stock Average ending higher on gains by real-estate companies, which rose on the AIG report.

European equities were a touch lower in recent trading.

Toronto stocks closed slightly higher on Monday as as Research In Motion shares rose following developments in its patent dispute.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 17.70 points, or 0.16%, to 11,154.28.

RIM shares were supported by recent U.S. patent office and court decisions that are expected to strengthen the BlackBerry maker’s position in its legal battle with NTP Inc. over its patents.

Shares of RIM rose $2.15, or 3%, to $73.90.


The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index slipped 1.23 points to 2,142.72.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks fell on weakness in semiconductor shares after a brokerage cut ratings on six major stocks in the sector.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 39.06 points, or 0.36%, at 10,836.53. The S&P 500 was down 7.40 points, or 0.58%, at 1,259.92. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index was down 29.74 points, or 1.32%, at 2,222.74.

One of Monday’s gainers was drug maker Pfizer Inc., which had its biggest one-day gain in more than 7 1/2 years after a federal judge on Friday upheld the validity of the drug maker’s Lipitor patents, blocking a generic version of the medicine that had threatened the company’s largest source of revenue.

Pfizer rose 7.7% to US$24.32.