The North American exchanges finish the session relatively stable

A mixture of good and bad news has left North American markets essentially stable Tuesday, investors being cautious in their assessment of the latest aid program of the U.S. government. The index star of the Toronto Stock Exchange, the S & P / TSX, has advanced 1.99 point to close at 8442.86 points, moderated by lower oil prices. The energy sector prosecutors Toronto has restated by 1.2 per cent, while a barrel of crude oil fell U.S. $ 3.73, or seven per cent to U.S. $ 50.77 on the Exchange of raw New York (NYMEX). The Canadian dollar has also increased by 0.63 cents U.S. to 81.63 cents U.S., after taking Monday 2.70 cents U.S.. In New York, the Dow Jones average of industrial values rose by 36.08 points to 8479.47 points, despite the publication of several economic data appeared to confirm that the degradation conditions and curbed and the optimism of investors. The benchmark S & P 500 advanced 5.58 points to 857.39 points while the Nasdaq composite index declined 7.29 points to 1464.73 points. Investors reacted to the announcement that the Federal Reserve to buy U.S. $ 100 billion of debt to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as federal bank loans. The Fed will also buy for around U.S. $ 500 billion of securities backed by mortgages. The financial actions of the Toronto Stock Exchange rose 0.48 percent after the Bank of Montreal (TSX: BMO) had reported results for the fourth quarter up 24 percent over last year. The action took the bank 83 cents to $ 34.95. The gold sector has yielded 0.7 percent, the price of bullion having retired from U.S. $ 1 to U.S. $ 818.50 an ounce, a decline somewhat mitigated by the declining value of the U.S. dollar. The sector of information technology posted the largest decline Tuesday, falling 2.9 percent. The Action Research In Motion (TSX: RIM) dropped $ 4.50 to $ 50.77. The TSX Venture TSXV has sold 2.83 points to 719.96 points. In the U.S., the Commerce Department reported Tuesday that gross domestic product shrank by 0.5 percent in annualized value during the quarter from July to September, U.S. consumers have reduced their purchases of the most important in 28 years. Other bad news came from the front of the housing market, with the publication of the Standard & Poor's / Case-Shiller on home prices. Prices fell to record annualized rate of 16.6 percent, reaching levels of the first quarter of 2004. "The market is faced with a mentality of deflation at this time", commented Paul Vaillancourt, director at Franklin Templeton Managed Solutions in Calgary. "Clearly, we are touching the bottom, but we have not yet rebounded. We must expect that this period passes - perhaps until Christmas vacation. As time passes, we will return in the new year with an attitude and a more positive. " "People cling, they want good news, but it is increasingly difficult."