Trade worries proved the culprit Monday, as North American stocks headed south, mostly on health-care and energy stock weakness.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index dumped 153.84 points, or 1%, to end Monday at 15,213.45
The Canadian dollar lost 0.16 cents at 77.42 cents U.S.
One of the largest decliners was Prometic Life Sciences, down 17 cents, or 19.3%, to 71 cents, after two brokerages trimmed their price targets on the stock. Elsewhere among health-care issues, Aurora Cannabis bent 50 cents, or 5.3%, to $8.80.
Energy stocks took a beating, as Enbridge bowed $1.04, or 2.6%, to $39.48, while TransCanada Corp fell $1.06, or 2%, to $52.22, as crude prices slipped.
Tech issues were hammered as well, as BlackBerry was left black and blue 95 cents, or 6.4%, to $13.86, while Constellation Software lost $10.15, or 1.2%, to $864.00.
One of the largest percentage gainers on the TSX was the shares of the printing company Transcontinental, which rose $2.55, or 10%, to $28.00, on a deal to buy the U.S. unit of plastics packager Coveris Holdings S.A for $1.70 billion.
Gold showed some strength, as Barrick Gold climbed 32 cents, or 2%, to $16.37, while Goldcorp strengthened 29 cents, or 1.6%, to $18.08.
China has slapped extra tariffs of up to 25% on 128 U.S. products including frozen pork, as well as wine and certain fruits and nuts, in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.
In the economic docket, the IHS Markit Purchasing Managers Index registered 55.7 in March, little changed from 55.6 in February and above the neutral 50.0 threshold for the 25th consecutive month.
Markit said the headline PMI reading in March was supported by a robust and accelerated rise in production volumes across the manufacturing sector.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange sagged 13.04 points, or 1.6%, to 783.63
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups remained negative on the day, with health-care down 4.3%, energy off 2.4%, and information technology settling 2%.
The three gainers were gold, brighter by 1.8%, while materials and utilities each advanced 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
On the first trading day of April, which is also the first trading day of the second quarter, stocks tanked thanks to a combination of anxiety about a trade war, and fears about the tech industry getting hit with regulation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 458.92 points, or 1.9%, though off its lows of the day, to finish at 23,644.19, with Intel as the worst-performing stock in the index.
The 30-stock index fell as much as 758.59 and hit a new low for the year on Monday, falling below the low touched during the slide in February.
The S&P 500 dumped 58.99 points, or 2.2%, to 2,581.88, and re-entered correction territory, with tech falling 2.5%. The index also dropped below its 200-day moving average, a key technical level.
The NASDAQ Composite index jettisoned 193.33 points, or 2.7%, to 6,870.12, as Amazon declined 5.2%. The NASDAQ also closed in correction.
Amazon fell after President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday that Amazon was scamming the U.S. Postal Service, adding the service loses "billions of dollars" delivering packages for the e-commerce giant. Amazon has been one of the best-performing stocks over the past year, rising nearly 64% in that time period.
Facebook dropped 2.8%, Netflix fell 5.1%, and Alphabet also traded sharply lower, flailing 2.4%. Last month, concerns over how Facebook handles data collected from its users sent the entire sector lower. Facebook dropped 10.4% in March.
Snap's stock also fell 8.9% Monday after MoffettNathanson reiterated its "sell" rating, noting it found students were "uniformly disapproving" of the company's app redesign.
Intel dropped 6.1% after Bloomberg reported Apple would use its own chips for Mac computers, ditching Intel. The Dow hit its lows of the day on the back of the report.
In economic news, the IHS Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI rose to 55.6 in March, its highest level since 2015. Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index reached 59.3 last month. Economists expected the number to hit 60.0.
Traders also fretted over the possibility that a trade war may be brewing.
China announced overnight Monday it had implemented tariffs on 128 types of U.S. imports. The goods hit with the charges the list of products proposed by Beijing in March and comes as a direct response to President Donald Trump signing off on tariffs on imported steel and aluminum last month. China said in March that those goods had an import value of $3 billion in 2017.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note gained ground, lowering yields to Thursday’s 2.74%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost $1.78 a barrel at $63.16 U.S.
Gold prices gained $17.90 to $1,345.20 U.S. an ounce.
