North American markets closed lower Tuesday partly as result of an earnings warning from retail giant Home Depot. The Toronto S&P/TSX composite index fell 61.33 points to 6,423.65.

Twelve of the 13 TSX sub-indices lost ground, led by a 3% drop in the information technology group.

Nortel Networks fell 7¢ to $2.19, while Research In Motion closed down 80¢ to $22.42.

Celestica fell $1.46 to $23.70 and BCE Inc. gave up 40¢ to $28.05.

Royal Bank was up 30¢ to $58 after Canada’s biggest bank reported its best-ever annual profit of $2.76 billion.

The gold sector slid 2.75 per cent as the spot bullion price on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 60 cents to US$318.60 an ounce. Kinross Gold dropped 20 ¢ to $2.73.

The industrials sector lost two per cent, with Bombardier down 55¢ to $5.40.

On the Toronto market, declines outweighed advances 637 to 427 with 225 issues unchanged. Volume was 160.3 million shares worth $1.75 billion.

The TSX Venture Exchange slipped 3.04 points to 944.79.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 10.90 points to 8,475.67. The Dow was dragged down by an earnings warning from Home Depot.

The Nasdaq composite index declined 19.30 points to 1,374.39 while the S&P 500 edged lower by 3.61 points to 896.75.

In other U.S. news, consumer prices rose by a modest 0.3% in October.

The Canadian dollar rose to US63.12¢ up US62.87¢ on Monday.