Canada's main stock index hurtled earthward by Monday’s closing bell as investors fretted about a worsening trade dispute between the United States and other major economies.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index faltered 266.18 points, or 1.6%, from Friday’s all-time record close, to finish Monday’s trading at 16, 183.96
The Canadian dollar nicked up 0.06 cents to 75.16 cents U.S.
Most of the damage was done in the tech sector, where Shopify tumbled $12.82, or 5.9%, to $203.35, while BlackBerry backed off 80 cents, or 5.7%, to $13.36.
In health-care, Canopy Growth faded $1.66, or 3.8%, to $41.77, while Valeant Pharmaceuticals trailed $1.45, or 4.5%, to $30.74.
Among industrials, Bombardier fell 17 cents, or 3.1%, to $5.08, while Canadian National Railways dropped $1.72, or 1.6%, to $105.31.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange subtracted 5.97 points to 750.27
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups were negative, with information technology sliding 3%, health-care, off 2.4%, and industrials dropping 1.8%
Only consumer staples managed to squeak into the green, up 0.01%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks kicked off the week trading lower on Monday as Wall Street braced for more actions against Chinese companies by the Trump administration.
The Dow Jones Industrials plummeted 328.09 points, or 1.3%, to 24,252.80, with Boeing and Intel among the biggest decliners in the index. The 30-stock index also closed below its 200-day moving average, a key technical level, for the first time since June 2016.
The S&P 500 dropped 37.81 points, or 1.4%, to 2,717.07, as tech declined 2.3%
The NASDAQ let go of 160.81 points, or 2.1%, to 7,532.01, as Netflix dropped 6.5% to lead the FANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) lower.
Harley-Davidson shares fell about 6% after the company announced it will shift production of motorcycles headed for Europe to factories outside the U.S. The company sold nearly 40,000 bikes to the European Union, second only to the U.S.
Shares of chipmakers Intel, Micron Technology and Nvidia all fell at least 3.4%. Boeing, Caterpillar and General Motors — all companies with significant exposure to China and major exporters — also fell by at least 1.6%.
Boeing, having fallen 5.9%, Caterpillar (down 10.1%) and GM (off 4.9%) were also on track to post large monthly losses. Deere and U.S. Steel, major exporters as well, are also down more than 6% each.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that President Donald Trump plans to bar several Chinese companies from making investments in U.S. tech. The newspaper also reported that the administration wants to block additional technology exports to China. Both measures are expected to be announced by the end of the week.
The Dow rebounded slightly in the final hour of trading after Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser to President Donald Trump, told some media outlets that investment restrictions against China and other countries are not immediately forthcoming and that the market was overreacting.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called the Wall Street Journal's story "fake news" in a tweet. He also said, however, that the measure will impact not just China, but all countries.
Increasing trade tensions between the U.S. and its key trade partners, including China, have kept Wall Street on edge. The major indexes finished last week lower after Trump asked the U.S. trade representative to target $200 billion worth of Chinese products for tariffs. Trump also raised the possibility of slapping a 20% charge on European cars.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury gained a bit of ground, lowering yields to 2.88% from Friday’s 2.9%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices fell 56 cents to $68.02 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slipped $3.60 to $1,267.10 U.S. an ounce.
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