The Toronto stock market ended relatively flat on Wednesday as oil prices tumbled to a six-week low, while housing data was mixed for the U.S. and Canada.
The S&P/TSX composite index was ahead 13.45 points to 12,436.16 after trading in tight range throughout the session. The TSX Venture Exchange rose 20.88 points to 1,343.52.
The Canadian dollar increased US0.01¢ to US102.62¢.
The lack of any major direction comes after North American stock markets made significant gains last week on the back of an announcement from the U.S. Federal Reserve of an open-ended plan to spend US$40 billion a month on a new round of bond purchases. And it will continue to do so until the job market shows substantial improvement.
"We've had a real strong move this month on a lot of stimulus, both within Europe and the U.S.," said Jeff Bradacs, portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management.
"I think the market's just taking the pause. For the next leg in the market it will (be) to see that stimulus run down into the economy and whether it picks up with macroeconomic data."
On Wednesday, the energy sector was the biggest decliner, off 0.6%, with Talisman Energy falling 18¢ to $14.07.
October crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange moved down $3.31 to US$91.98 a barrel, touching a six-week low.
Gold stocks rose 0.8%, while the December bullion increased 50 cents to closing the session at US$1,771.70 an ounce. December copper was up 2.7¢ to US$3.81 a pound.
In economic data, a report from the U.S. Commerce Department said that builders started construction on more homes in August, driven by the fastest pace of singlefamily home building in more than two years.
Construction of new homes and apartments rose 2.3% to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 750,000 last month.
A separate report on U.S. home sales from the National Association of Realtors said they jumped to the highest level in more than two years in August.
Sales rose 7.8% to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.82 million, the most since May 2010.
The picture of the Canadian housing market was somewhat less robust, with the Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index showing that prices rose a meagre 0.2% in August from the month prior. That marks the weakest month-over-month increase in 12 years.
