U.S. markets are lower at midday as the price of crude oil moved towards $46 US a barrel and tech giant Hewlett Packard issued a disappointing outlook. Toronto losses are more limited as a rising energy sector has balanced some of the losses in the information technology sector.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index is off 2.97 points at 8,165.27

Oil prices hit a fresh record high of US$45.45 US a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange – up US65¢¢ from Thursday – despite a reassurance from Saudi Arabia that it is willing to raise production by up to 1.3 million barrels a day.

The TSX energy sector is ahead 0.37%, helped by gains in stocks such as EnCana, up 59¢ higher to $55.62, and Husky Energy, up 83¢ to $28.13.

The information technology sector is down 2.11% as Celestica dropped 64¢ to $18.46 and Nortel Networks edged 8¢ lower to $4.36.

Other active TSX stocks include TM Bioscience. Its shares have plunged 60¢ to $1.20 after the company, reported a second-quarter loss of $3.43 million.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index is off 0.31 points to 1,460.66.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones inindustrial average is down 80 points to 9,858.32. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index has slipped 21.21 points to 1,761.21, while the S&P 500 is off 7.34 points at 1,068.45.

Computer and printer giant Hewlett Packard Co. reported a 9% jump in third-quarter revenues, but its shares have tumbled US$3.17 to US$16.35 as the results fell short of expectations.