North American markets may open flat Thursday as investors await a report on the U.S. index of leading indicators and mull over the seesawing price of crude oil.

The U.S. Conference Board is due to release its index of leading indicators for August at 10:00. Economists look for the leaders to slip by a further 0.3% in August.

Meanwhile, U.S. initial jobless claims climbed to a three-week high last week, reflecting the continuing toll of hurricanes that struck Florida.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose by 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000 in the week that ended Sept. 18. That marked the highest level since the week of Aug. 28. The four-week average rose slightly to 341,000. Economists had called for a gain of just 7,000 claims.

Crude-oil prices eased early Thursday, falling 13¢to US$48.22, after soaring $1.59 to US$48.35 a barrel on Wednesday.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

Shares in Hong Kong closed almost flat overnight. The Hang Seng rose 8.2 points or 0.06% to 13,280.43.

Tokyo markets were closed for a national holiday and will reopen Friday.

Another spike in oil prices Wednesday combined with questions about home finance giant Fannie Mae’s accounting sent investors on Wall Street scrambling, while traders on Bay Street were spooked by lower gold prices and a downgrade of Cisco Systems.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite closed down 56.84 points or 0.66% to 8,586.09, while the junior S&P/TSX Venture exchange was up 8.45 or 0.55% to 1,538.57.

In New York, prices were down sharply early in the day and stayed down: the Dow Jones industrial was off 135.74 points or 1.33% to 10,109.18; the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index tumbled 35.47 points or 1.85% to 1,885.71 and the S&P 500 slid 15.74 points or 1.39% to 1,113.56.

The Canadian dollar, meanwhile, jumped 0.15 a cent to end the day at US77.89¢. The loonie briefly crossed the US78¢ level for the first time since mid-January as traders bet that Canadian interest rates would continue to rise and remain higher than U.S. rates.

In New York, shares of Fannie Mae, the No. 1 U.S. mortgage finance company, fell $4.96, or 6.5% percent, to US$70.69 after its board said a U.S. government review charged it with using “cookie jar” accounting to smooth earnings. The review also called into doubt past financial results.