U.S. stock markets took a surprise dive in the last hour of trading yesterday to join Canadian markets in the negative territory they'd been occupying all day, thanks to declining commodity prices.
Canada's benchmark S&P/TSX composite index was off 100.85 points, or 0.9%, to 11,607.00 at the close, with energy and materials stocks proving the biggest drag on the index. Seven of the 10 sub-indexes fell.
The junior Venture exchange lost 7.41 points, or 0.5%, to 1,451.31.
The price of oil dropped US61¢ to US$78.25 a barrel, while gold tumbled US$17.60 to US$1,238.60 an ounce. The Canadian dollar, which had moved in and out of positive territory throughout the day, was nearly flat with Friday's close at US96.54¢, up one basis point.
"The Canadian dollar is following the risk aversion tones of the market," Maria Jones, currency trader at Toronto-Dominion Bank, told Bloomberg. "We've probably seen the highs in the loonie for a while given the performance of the global economy. A lot of the recent economic indicators are coming in on a weaker footing."
One bright spot was the technology sector. Research In Motion Ltd. led the way there, its shares gaining 1.4% to $54.84 after two days of losses around last week's earnings announcement. The BlackBerry maker's shares have fallen 15% since June 15 when they hit their highest point of the month--$64.49.
