Stocks are expected to decline at Friday’s open as crude oil prices passed the US$49 a barrel mark over heightened concern about supplies in Iraq. The spike brings prices close to the psychologically important $50 threshold.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said today that wholesale sales advanced for the fourth consecutive month in June.

StatsCan said wholesale sales rose 0.6% to $37.8 billion. This increase was largely attributable to the automotive sector. Excluding this sector, sales declined 0.4%.

At midday in Europe, major indexes are edging downward. The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index is off 0.2% in London, while the Xetra DAX in Frankfurt has slipped 0.7%.

Asian stock markets closed lower overnight, pushed down largely by worries over rising global oil prices.

Tokyo’s Nikkei slipped 14.39 points, or 0.13%, to 10,889.14.

In Hong Kong, the main Hang Seng Index dropped 19.77 points, or 0.15%, to 12,376.90.

Another record high for oil prices depressed U.S. markets Thursday and took the shine off the much-anticipated launch of Google Inc.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite closed up 70.95 points, or 0.86%, to 8293.94, as gold stocks rose 4.13%.

Toronto also got a lift from Nortel Networks, which jumped 4.09% on volume of more than 37 million shares. The increase came after the company said it will slash its workforce by 3,500 jobs, or 10%, and has fired seven more finance employees “for cause.” Nortel also said “estimated limited preliminary unaudited” earnings per share in the first half of 2004 were zero to US2¢ a share.

The TSX Venture Exchange added 7.38 points, or 0.49%, at 1,500.50.

On Wall Street, the Dow industrial average was off 42.33 points, or 0.49%, to 10,040.82. The Nasdaq composite index fell 11.48 points, or 0.63%, at 1,819.89, while the S&P 500 lost 3.94 points, or 0.36%, to 1,091.23.

Shares of Google took off, gaining 18% at US$100.34 on the Nasdaq as it began trading after the Internet company’s initial public offering. The offering, smaller than originally planned, raised US$1.67 billion.