Canadian stocks remained notably lower but came off the lows of the session on Thursday. The weakness mirrored moves made in the U.S. and Europe.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 52.39 points to end the day at 11,600.30, ending a four-session win streak.
Manulife Financial lost 6.4% to $18.89 after the company said it will raise $2.5 billion through a common equity offering in a bought deal at $19.00 per share.
Energy stocks were down, as Encana dropped 2.1% to $56.65 and Canadian Oil Sands slid 2% to $30.20.
Agrium was up 1.4% to $60.86 after the company announced that stockholders of CF Industries Holdings have tendered about 30 million shares, or 62% of the total outstanding CF shares, into Agrium's offer to buy the company for about $5.1 billion U.S.
Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers retreated 0.5% to $25.76 after the company said it signed agreement to acquire the auction business and certain assets of Martella Auction Company for about $5.1 billion U.S. Agrium shares were down 0.75%.
Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. leaped 7.4% to 51 cents after the company announced a bought deal of 20.83 million units at a price of $0.48 per unit for gross proceeds of about $10 million.
Destiny Resource Services shares more than doubled to $4.00 after the company signed an agreement to be taken over by Logan Oil Tools.
In economic news, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development sharply raised its combined growth forecast for its 30 member nations. The OECD said it expects Canadian unemployment to continue to rise until the end of the year.
Elsewhere, Canada's leading index rose 0.7% in October. An increase of 0.8% was forecast for October, compared to a 1.1% increase in September.
Wholesale sales edged up 0.2% in September. A decline of 0.5% was expected for September, compared to a 1.4% drop in August.
The Canadian dollar lost 0.78 cents to 94.08 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but four of the 14 TSX subgroups went down, weighed by real-estate stocks, off 1.4%, energy issues, slipping 1.2%, and financials, 1.1% poorer.
The gainers were led by comeback kid gold, up 1.7% after floundering much of the day, materials, ahead 1.3%, and telecoms, 0.6% stronger.
The TSX Venture Exchange regained 6.88 points to 1,400.94, while the Nasdaq Canada index skidded 10.96 points to 648.85.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks tumbled for the second day in a row Thursday as concerns about the economic recovery resurfaced and the dollar strengthened.
The Dow Jones Industrials surrendered 93.87 to end the day at 10,332.43. The S&P 500 index moved down 14.90 points to 1,094.90, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 36.32 points to 2,156.82.
Tech shares led decliners following a batch of bearish profit outlooks and analyst downgrades in the previous session. Intel lost 4% and Hewlett-Packard fell 1.3%.
Energy producers Chevron and Exxon Mobil also fell as oil prices dropped 2.5% to settle below $78 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices recovered from earlier losses to close at a fresh all-time high.
Analysts said a move lower was not surprising after stocks surged to a 13-month high earlier in the week.
JPMorgan Chase said Thursday it was buying the half of U.K. broker Cazenove that it does not already own for about $1.67 billion U.S.
Sears Holdings posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss of $127 million U.S., or $1.09 U.S. a share, an improvement from the loss of $146 million U.S., or $1.16 U.S. a share, a year earlier. Results were helped by the first increase in same-store sales at its Kmart unit in four years.
Economically, the U.S. Labor Department released its weekly report on initial jobless claims, showing that the number of claims was unchanged from the prior week, virtually matching expectations.
The government said that jobless totaled 505,000 in the week ended Nov. 14. This was very close to the forecast of 504,000 claims, according to a consensus of economist opinion compiled by Briefing.com.
Treasury prices shot up, thus lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.34% from Wednesday’s 3.36%. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil slipped $2.12 to $77.70 U.S.
Gold prices gained back a dollar to yet another all-time high of $1,142 U.S. an ounce.
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