The Toronto Stock Exchange was little changed early on Dec. 30.
Energy stocks helped send the Toronto stock market lower Tuesday amid further volatility in oil prices.
The S&P/TSX composite index declined 35.99 points to 14,627.93.
The energy sector fell 1.2 per cent even as February crude in New York erased early losses to add 49 cents to US$54.10 a barrel.
Crude futures are down about 50 per cent since their 2014 high of $107.26 in June amid rising supplies and lower demand from weaker economies such as Europe and China. The rout in prices has pushed the TSX energy sector down about 20 per cent this year as traders try to gauge just how low prices can go.
"It's a gigantic game of chicken that is going on right now," said Craig Jerusalim, a portfolio manager at CIBC Asset Management, adding that OPEC is trying to slow the trajectory of growth in North American supply.
"The U.S. has gone from (production of) six million barrels to 10 million barrels in about four years and that pace has them scared."
He believes that oil touching $50 and then bouncing right back up is not going to be enough. Jerusalim thinks OPEC needs to keep pricing low for at least six months and he is looking for production, capital expenditures and rig counts to come down.
Oilfield service companies have been a major casualty of the plunge in oil prices. Shares in Civeo Corp. (NYSE:CVEO), which provides accommodations serving energy company workers mainly in the Canadian oil sands region and in Australia, cratered $4.05 or almost 50 per cent to US$4.22 as it announced that falling oil prices would negatively impact its earnings in 2015. The company also suspended its dividend.
The Canadian dollar rose 0.19 of a cent to 86.18 cents US.
New York markets were in the red amid mixed data covering American house prices and consumer confidence.
The Dow Jones industrials declined 54.52 points to 17,983.71, the Nasdaq was down 18.56 points to 4,788.35 and the S&P 500 index gave back 7.05 points to 2,083.52.
The Case Schiller home price index rose by a greater-than-expected 0.76 per cent on a seasonally-adjusted basis in October. Economists had looked for a rise of 0.4 per cent. The year-over-year rate eased to an almost on-consensus 4.5 per cent.
And the Conference Board's consumer-confidence index came in at 92.6 in December, up from a November read of 88.7. Economists had thought confidence would improve due to plunging gasoline prices, faster job creation and higher stock prices and expected a reading of 93.9.
Elsewhere on the TSX, financials were also a drag, down 0.55 per cent while industrials fell 0.4 per cent.
The gold sector was the leading advancer in Toronto, up 4.3 per cent as a weaker U.S. dollar helped push February bullion up $24 to US$1,205.90 an ounce.
The base metals group climbed 0.8 per cent while March copper edged up three cents to US$2.85 a pound.
The TSX is on the way to a gain of around eight per cent for 2014. U.S. markets have had a better year with the Dow up almost nine per cent and the S&P 500 ahead 13 per cent.