Markets in Canada and the U.S. were slightly down Wednesday after two days of optimism at the beginning of the fourth quarter, as virtually everything other than oil reversed its early-week rally.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 135.90 points, or 0.7%, at 19,235.09 after gaining nearly 500 points on Tuesday.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 42.45 points at 30,273.87. The S&P 500 index was down 7.65 points at 3,783.28, while the Nasdaq composite was down 27.77 points at 11,148.64

The Canadian dollar traded for 73.31 cents US compared with 73.67 cents US on Tuesday.

The November crude contract was up US$1.24 at US$87.76 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was up nine cents at US$6.93 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down US$9.70 at US$1,720.80 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$3.50 a pound..

- With files from BNN Bloomberg.