Toronto stocks ended lower Tuesday following a see-saw session, even as the price of gold hit a new record high.

After being up as much as 152 points, the S&P/TSX composite closed down 77.12 points, or 0.57% to close at 13,541.75.

The TSX gold subgroup climbed 4.13% after gold futures closed at a new all-time high.

Gold for February delivery hit an intraday high of US$883.80 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, surpassing the previous record of US$875 set on Jan. 21, 1980.

Prices eased to end at US$880.30, up US$18.30 an ounce, a new all-time closing high.

Barrick Gold Corp. climbed $1.98, or 4.17%, to close at $49.46.

Goldcorp closed up 73¢, or 1.96% at $38.05, after the company said its gold production increased 35% in 2007 to 2.29 million ounces, at the high end of its forecast. Production is expected to rise by 14% this year.

The energy group declined 0.50%, evan as crude-oil futures rose for the first time in four days. Crude oil for February delivery closed up US$1.24, or 1.3%, at US$96.33 a barrel on the NYMEX.

Suncor Energy fell 77¢, or 0.71%, to finish the session at $107.58.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite closed flat, rising 0.23 points, or 0.01%, to end the session at 2,820.21.

The Canadian dollar climbed 0.12 of a cent to close at US99.56¢.

In New York, markets were weighed down by housing market jitters.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 238.42 points, or 1.86%, closing at 12,589.07. The S&P 500 fell 25.99 points, or 1.84% to settle at 1,390.19.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index saw its eighth day of losses, sliding 58.95 points, or 2.36%, to close at 2,440.51.

The U.S. National Association of Realtors’ index for pending sales of previously owned homes decreased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.6% to 87.6 in November from October’s 89.9. That figure was 19% below the November 2006 figure.

KB Home, one of the largest U.S. homebuilders, said its fourth-quarter loss ballooned as home sales slowed. KB posted a loss of US$772.7 million, compared with a loss of $49.6 million in the year-ago period.