North American stocks finished flat after a listless day of trading, as neither the day's corporate-acquisition news nor the recent encouraging economic indicators managed to deliver any direction to the markets.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index closed down 15.41 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 11,959.73, failing to hang on to its early gains that had pushed the index above 12,000 for the first time in nearly two months. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 13.68 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 10,552.52, while the S&P 500 index slipped 0.20 point to 1,138.50. But the Nasdaq composite managed to edge up 5.86 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 2,332.21.

The markets failed to follow through on the solid gains posted Friday, when the closely watched U.S. employment numbers came in better than expected. Instead, they waffled all day in a narrow range, gaining no traction despite some big acquisitiion deals and a bullish Canadian housing report.

Insurer American International Group Inc. reached a deal to sell one of its major foreign subsidiaries to MetLife Inc. for $15.5-billion (U.S.). Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina offered to buy Australia's Arrow Energy Ltd. for $3-billion in cash and stock.

Canada's housing starts jumped a bigger-than-expected 6.1 per cent to an annualized pace of 196,700 units, lending further evidence to the pick-up in the Canadian economy and the strength of domestic consumer demand.

But the good news for the Canadian market was trumped by a lacklustre performance in the commodity market, which kept the TSX's heavily weighted resource sectors in check.

Gold slumped $13.10 to $1,122,10 an ounce in New York. Crude oil inched up 20 cents to $81.70 a barrel, failing to build much on its recent gains.

Seven of Toronto's 10 major industry subindexes are lower, led by the gold-dominated materials group, off 0.8 per cent. Consumer staples also fell 0.8 per cent. Leading the upside was information technology, up 3.9 per cent. Sector heavyweight Research In Motion surged 5.5 per cent after the stock was upgraded by BMO Nesbitt Burns.

The Canadian dollar closed up one-tenth of a cent at 97.31 cents (U.S.).

Tuesday could be another sluggish day for the markets, with no major economic reports on tap. In Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia's earnings report should garner attention, as the last of the country's big banks rolls out its quarterly results.

Traders may also spend the day taking stock of what's transpired over the past year. Tuesday marks the first anniversary of the market bottom - the low point that preceded the rally that lifted major North American indexes 60 per cent over the past 12 months.