North American stocks were poised to fall on Friday after congressional talks on the US$700-billion bailout plan hit a stalemate on Thursday evening and U.S. banking authorities closed Washington Mutual Inc., the largest bank failure in U.S. history

Despite talks falling apart, Congressional leaders were set to try again on Friday to agree on a rescue plan. Meanwhile, after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized Seattle-based WaMu, which collapsed under its enormous bad mortgage debts, and sold it to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Inc. for US1.9 billion. WaMu’s US$307 billion in assets by far eclipsed any previous U.S. banking failure.

Overseas markets fell on Friday on this double dose of bad news. Japan’s Nikkei stock average was down 0.94%. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 1.14%, Germany’s DAX index was down 1.40%, and France’s CAC-40 was down 1.02%.

At home, Research in Motion Ltd.’s stock is expected to take a hit after RIM fell short of market expectations with a quarterly profit of US$495.5 million on revenue of US$2.58 billion, which is almost double from the same period a year prior.

On Thursday, the S&P/TSX composite index closed up 33.15 points, or 0.26%, to 12,546.51.

Crude oil for November delivery rose US$2.29, or 2.2%, to close at US$108.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold futures fell, with the contract for December delivery sliding US$13 to finish the day at US$882 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Canadian dollar briefly touched its highest point in more than seven weeks, helped by strong oil prices. It finished the day up US0.2¢ at US96.68¢.

The junior TSX venture index fell 9.96 points, or 0.64% to close at 1,540.68.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 196.89 points, or 1.8%, to end at 11,022.06. The Nasdaq composite index added 30.89 points, or 1.4%, to close at 2,186.57. The S&P 500 climbed 23.31 points, or 2%, to 1,209.18.