North American markets were mixed on Tuesday, with Bay Street posting modest losses while Wall Street managed to hold on to early gains.

At close, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 9.31 points or 0.11% at 8232.18 on volume of 206 million shares. The TSX Venture Exchange was also down, off 1.5 points or 0.1% to 1479.46.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 18.28 or 0.18% to 9972.83. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 2.37 or 0.22% at 1081.71 and the Nasdaq composite index gained 12.49 points or 0.7% to 1795.25.

The Canadian dollar was unchanged from midday, off 0.01 of a cent to US76.48¢.

Bay Street was plagued by energy stocks, which finished the day down 1.25%, and by Nortel Networks Corp., which closed 5¢ or 1.12% lower at $4.43 on heavy volume (almost 16 million shares).

Energy stocks stared the day lower on news that oil prices had dipped for the second day in a row, calmed by the results of a vote in Venezuela on Monday. But the sector failed to move when prices began to climb over concerns about Iraqi and Russian output. At day’s end, oil prices set a new record, approaching US$47 a barrel. A barrel of light crude was quoted at US$46.75, up 70¢, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Nortel was the victim of an announcement late Monday that the RCMP is opening a criminal investigation into the financial accounting at Canada’s largest high-tech company. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Dallas has also subpoenaed documents from the company as part of a criminal investigation in the United States and securities regulators in both countries are investigating the company’s finances. Nortel has also been hit with numerous class-action suits. The probes come as the telecommunications equipment manufacturer prepares to release preliminary first- and second-quarter results on Thursday.

Despite Nortel, tech shares managed to finish ahead on the day — up 0.71%. Gold and metals were also up — 0.63% and 0.91%. Financials stocks were down slightly (0.03%) and industrials gave up 0.90%.

Wall Street got an early lift — crossing the 10000 level for first time in nearly two weeks — from two bits of positive economic news.

Consumer prices fell 0.1% in July, the first decline since November 2003. Excluding food and energy costs, the core CPI rose 0.1%, below economist expectations of a 0.2 percent rise. Meanwhile, investors welcomed a leap in new housing construction for July. Housing starts were up 8.3% from June’s revised 1.826 million pace, which was a one-year low.