Markets opened lower Tuesday, as commodities fell, housing figures out of Canada showed a slowdown and labour productivity numbers in the U.S. fell. The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index fell 63.52 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 11,800.04. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, oil fell $1.61 U.S. to $79.87 U.S. a barrel and gold fell $8.20 to $1,194.40 U.S. an ounce. The Canadian dollar was trading at 96.50 cents U.S., down 90 basis points. The annual rate of Canadian housing starts fell 1.6 per cent in July to a seasonally adjusted 189,200 units from an upwardly revised 192,300 units in June, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Tuesday. The number of starts is higher than the 185,000 economists polled by Bloomberg had called for. In a separate report, new home prices in Canada rose 0.1 per cent in June following a 0.3 per cent increase in May, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday. The figures illustrated Scotia Economics' report Tuesday that said Canada is facing a "dramatic" downturn in the housing sector. In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average fell 83.10 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 10,615.65, while the Nasdaq composite index was down 24.95 points, or 1.08 per cent, to 2,280.74. Investors are waiting to see what is said at the Federal Reserve's one-day monetary policy meeting Tuesday afternoon. "Speculation continues to mount on whether policy-makers will embark on another round of quantitative easing. While we don't believe more QE is in the cards this month, the lacklustre economic outlook will keep the dovish language in place, as will their pledge to keep rates low 'for an extended period,' " Jennifer Lee economist BMO Capital Markets said in a note. "The market may not like it if we don't hear anything on QE this afternoon, but considering that strengthening economies don't need bailouts, it could be more supportive of the longer-term recovery trend," added Colin Cieszynski of CMC Markets Canada. Meanwhile, U.S. nonfarm labour productivity unexpectedly fell 0.9 per cent annualized to a rate of 3.9 per cent in the second quarter following gains in the previous five quarters. Hourly compensation unexpectedly fell 0.7 per cent. Unit labour costs climbed 0.2 per cent. "Economists often tout the long-run benefits of strong productivity growth, but given the precarious state of the economy, a little more employment, even at the expense of productivity, would likely be helpful in the near term. Unfortunately, the soft July payrolls report and still-high jobless claims suggest that might not be the case in (the third quarter)," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. Markets were also lower overseas. London's FTSE lost 40.07 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 5,370.41 at midday. In Frankfurt, Germany's DAX fell 77.59 points, or 1.22 per cent, to 6,274.01, and the Paris CAC fell 45.36 points, or 1.2 per cent, to 3,732.01. In China, exports rose 38.1 per cent annually — a record high —_but import growth slowed to 22.7 per cent, suggesting softer domestic demand. The Nikkei in Japan closed down 21.44 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 9,551.05, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 327.99 points, or 1.5 per cent, to 21,473.6. On Monday, the S&P/TSX composite index closed up 63.59 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 11,863.56. The Dow was up by 45.19 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 10,698.75. The Nasdaq composite index gained 17.22 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 2,305.69.

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