North American markets closed lower Friday as weak earnings from General Electric made investors wary along with weak consumer confidence reports.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index tumbled 226.55 points, or 1.63%, at 13,683.03.

All of the 10 major TSX groups gained today.

The financials group closed down 1.72%.

The Bank of Nova Scotia shares fell $1.19, or 2.55%, to close at $45.54, after the Wall Street Journal reported the bank is looking to purchase part of Cleveland-based National City Corp. Scotiabank did not comment on the report by day’s end.

Manulife Financial Corp. shares closed down 95¢, or 2.42%, at $38.25.

The energy group closed down 1.49%,

Crude oil for May delivery gained 3¢ to finish the session at US$110.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, the futures contract ended up 3.7%.

Canadian Natural Resources Co. shares fell $1.43, or 1.79%, to end at $78.39. Opti Canada Inc. stock, however, gained 38¢, or 1.85%, to close at $20.90.

Meanwhile, the materials group closed down 1.58%, as the gold sub-index tumbled 2%.

June’s gold contract dropped US$4.80 to end at US$927 an ounce on the Nymex. For the week, gold posted a US$13.80 gain.

Barrick Gold Corp. shares fell $1.24, or 2.76%, to finish at $43.76. However, Shore Gold Inc. shares gained 24¢, or 5.96%, to end at $4.27.

The information tech sector did nothing to help markets today, falling 2.39%. Research in Motion Ltd. shares fell $4.61, or 3.74%, to finish the week at $118.76.

In Canadian earnings news, CanWest Global Communications Corp. shares fell 35¢, or 7.37%, to end at $4.40, after it reported a 9% rise in earnings for Q2, to $702 million, but a net loss of $34 million.

As well, Shaw Communications Inc. stock gained 78¢, or 3.85%, to close at $21.05, after the company announced an 11% rise in Q2 revenues to $763 million, and net income of $299 million.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index closed down 10.11 points, or 0.39%, at 2,557.34.

The Canadian dollar closed out at US97.71¢, down 0.09 of a cent from yesterday’s close, as Statistics Canada reported that a 6.2% increase in new housing prices for February, a slower growth rate than last year’s 6.5%.

In New York, GE’s weaker than expected earnings hit stock markets hit hard and when coupled with a low consumer sentiment index reading from the University of Michigan/Reuters, it made for a grim end to the week.

The Dow Jones industrial average sank 256.56 points, or 2.04%, to end at 12,325.42. The S&P 500 lost 27.72 points, or 2.04%, to close at 1,332.83.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 61.46 points, or 2.61%, to 2,290.24.

For the week, the Dow was down 2.3%, the S&P was down 2.7% and the Nasdaq fell 3.4%.