Toronto stocks remained notably lower on Monday and reached their lowest level in nearly two weeks. Resource stocks saw significant weakness as commodities fell on the NYMEX.
The S&P TSX Composite Index plunged 241.39 points - or 2.35% - to end Monday at 10,041.71.
Mining stocks lost some strength with copper dropping by more than 2% in Comex trading. First Quantum plunged 6.3% to $53.86, Inmet dropped 5.8% to $40.64 and HudBay declined 5% to $7.08.
Teck Resources was down 2.4% to $19.52. The company said it expects average transportation costs to be in the range of $33 to $35 per tonne for 2009, compared to previous guidance of $35 to $37 per tonne.
Materials and gold stocks were also down as Kinross dropped 2.8% to $21.33 after the stock was downgraded to Sector Perform from Sector Outperform at Scotia Capital.
Energy stocks were down as Suncor dropped 6% to $30.89, Canadian Natural Resources slipped 4.3% to $55.77 and Encana was down 4.2% to $53.05.
CIC Energy surged 33.8% to $2.10 after the company reported a second-quarter net loss of $2.12 million or $0.04 per share, compared to a loss of $2.61 million or $0.05 per share for the same period last year.
In corporate news, WestJet was down 4.2% to $10.35 after the company said its June load factor was 72.9%, 3.6 points down from 76.5% in the year-ago period.
Pet Valu was up 3.5% to $13.50 after the company agreed to be acquired by certain affiliates of Roark Capital Group for $13.68 in cash or approximately $143.7 million.
The Canadian dollar was up 0.01 cents to 86.08 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All 14 TSX subgroups remained in negative territory throughout the day. Global base metals proved the biggest anchor, losing 4.8%, metals and mining stocks shed 4% of their strength, while gold was 3.8% to the poorer
The TSX Venture Exchange was down 28.33 points, to 1,064.63, while the Nasdaq Canada Index down 11.18 points to 668.71.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, blue-chip stocks pulled off their lows and staged a slight gain Monday afternoon, even as falling oil prices exacerbated worries about the pace of the economic slowdown.
The Dow Jones Industrials average pulled out of its funk to gain 44.13 to 8,324.87. The S&P 500 index picked up 2.29 points to 898.71. The Nasdaq stumbled 9.12 points to 1,787.40.
Stocks opened lower and remained there through most of the session. The market trimmed losses after the release of a better-than-expected report on the services sector of the economy from the Institute for Supple Management. But any recovery attempt soon petered out.
The ISM’s services sector index rose to 47 in June from 44 in May. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would rise to only 46.
On the Dow industrials, Chevron and Exxon Mobil led the declines, falling along with the price of oil. But that was countered by strength in heavily-weighted components such as Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Procter & Gamble.
General Motors' restructuring plan has been approved by a federal judge, clearing the way for the troubled automaker to emerge from bankruptcy.
The automaker will be allowed to sell most of its assets to a new company, which should clear the way for it to exit bankruptcy. The judge's ruling came after a three-day hearing ended Thursday.
The company has received $50 billion U.S. in taxpayer funds. In exchange, the U.S. government will get a majority stake in the new GM. Other owners include the Canadian government and the United Auto Workers union.
GM shares fell 13%.
Pepsi and Pepsi Bottling Group will invest an additional $1 billion U.S. in Russia over the next three years in an effort to counter weak domestic sales by boosting profits in emerging markets. The two companies have now invested more than $4 billion U.S. in Russia.
Rio Tinto sold a division of its Alcan unit for $1.2 billion U.S. as it seeks to cut debt after the 2007 purchase of the Canadian aluminum company. The sale of Alcan's packaged food division to U.S.-based Bemis Company is a cash-and-stock deal.
Treasury prices rose, forcing the yield on the benchmark 10-year note down to 3.5%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped $1.58 a barrel to $64.27 U.S.
Gold prices subsided $7 an ounce at $924 U.S.
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