Equities in Toronto fell on Tuesday, with financial and energy stocks weighing as crude oil prices dropped on renewed concern about oversupply.
The S&P/TSX composite index plummeted 227.35 points, or 1.8%, off its lows of the morning, to greet noon at 12,447.02.
The Canadian dollar ducked back 0.41 cents to 71.29 cents U.S.
The most influential movers on the index included its biggest bank by market capitalization, Royal Bank of Canada, which fell 1.9% to $69.93, and the number-one oil and gas company, Suncor Energy Inc, which declined 4.4% to $30.42.
The energy group retreated sharply. Canadian Natural Resources, another major player in the sector, tumbled 4.1% to $27.90.
Imperial Oil Ltd declined 3.9% to $40.20 after the country's number-two integrated oil producer and refiner reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit.
Brookfield Asset Management Inc shares declined 2% to $40.68 after it withdrew an offer to buy a stake in infrastructure company Invepar.
Among industrials, another ailing sector, Canadian Pacific Railway declined 2.7% to $162.28.
Democrats from Pennsylvania's congressional delegation sent a letter to a U.S. federal rail regulator on Monday raising concerns over the possible negative impacts of a merger between CP and Norfolk Southern Corp.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 2.88 points, to 498.06
All but one of the 13 TSX subgroups were negative by noon, metals and mining taking the brunt of it, down 4.4%, while energy weakened 3.2%., and industrials flopped 2.9%.
Only telecoms broke even, gaining only 0.01% at that.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded lower Tuesday as renewed declines in oil prices weighed amid mixed reaction to some key earnings reports.
The Dow Jones industrial average slouched 282.19 points, or 1.7%, to pause for lunch at 16,166.99. Goldman Sachs, Chevron and Exxon Mobil were the greatest weights on the index.
The S&P 500 pointed downward 27.36 points, or 1.4%, to 1,912.02, as energy and financials fell more than 2 percent to lead decliners.
The NASDAQ index dropped 81.31 points, or 1.8%, to 4,538.86, as Apple, biotechs and several major tech stocks declined.
However, Facebook continued to climb and shares of Alphabet, Google's parent company, gained more than 4% in midday trade.
The company reported earnings after the close Monday that beat on both the top and bottom line, helped by a 17% rise in advertising revenue. A key advertising metric of aggregate paid clicks increased 31% from the previous year, beating consensus expectations of about 22%.
A jump in the shares in intraday trade Tuesday put Google on pace to top Apple as the world's most valuable company.
Shares of Exxon Mobil briefly declined 3% after the firm reported a 58% drop in profit, hurt by low oil prices. The world's largest publicly traded oil company also said it would cut spending this year by one-quarter
Auto sales for January are the only major data out Tuesday, ahead of Friday's jobs report.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained sharply, lowering yields to 1.88% from Monday’s 1.96%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gave back $1.56 a barrel to $30.06 U.S.
Gold prices inched up two cents to $1,128.43 U.S. an ounce.
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