Toronto stocks remained in the red on Friday as traders considered the disappointing jobs report from the U.S. The drop was the third straight for the market.
Minutes before the closing bell, the S&P TSX Composite index had backtracked 125.03 points, or 1.1%, to 10,946.74.
Financials were down, as Scotiabank dropped 3.8% to $46.21, Toronto-Dominion fell 2.7% at $64.89 and Bank of Montreal declined 2.3% to $51.80.
In corporate news, CanWest Global Communications surged 34.2% to 27.5 cents as the National Post has landed financial backing to purchase of struggling CanWest newspapers, according to the Globe and Mail.
Pengrowth Energy Trust lost 6.9% to $10.26 after being downgraded to "hold" from "buy" at Canaccord Adams.
Oncolytics Biotech soared 17% to $3.72 after announcing it will work with the FDA on Phase III trial of its cancer treatment, Reolysin.
Enbridge faded 0.3% to $40.78 after announcing it has reached a deal to acquire a 20 megawatt solar energy project that First Solar has developed and is constructing near Sarnia, Ontario.
Bombardier dropped 2.3% to $4.77 as rival Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has received an order for up to 100 regional planes from Trans States Holdings, according to reports.
The Canadian dollar regained 0.03 cents to 92.38 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 14 TSX subgroups, eight finished the day in negative territory. Financials were off 1.9%, while real-estate and energy stocks dipped 1.3% each.
Consumer staples led the half-dozen gainers, up 1%, followed by health-care stocks, ahead 0.7% and global base metals, advancing 0.6%.
The TSX Venture Exchange fell off 4.59 points to 1,244.12, while the Nasdaq Canada index was down 14.14 to 683.57.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks meandered Friday, at the end of a second straight week of losses, as investors worried that a worse-than-expected jobs report was further evidence that the rally has gotten ahead of the recovery.
The Dow Jones Industrials was down 21.61 points on the day to 9,487.67. The S&P 500 index slid 4.64 points, to 1,025.21. The Nasdaq composite index stumbled 9.37 points to 2,048.11.
Since the rally highs were hit last week, stocks have lost about 5%. One expert said that stocks may need to ease another 5% lower over the next few weeks, but that a 10% pullback would be sufficient to bring buyers back in to push the market higher.
Stocks got hammered Thursday after weaker-than-expected readings on manufacturing and jobless claims sparked worries about the pace of the economic recovery. The Dow closed down 204 points.
Stocks were also vulnerable to a bit of selling after a strong July through September period in which the Dow and S&P 500 both jumped 15%, their biggest quarterly gains in more than a decade.
The Nasdaq gained 15.7%, its best quarterly performance since 2003.
The advance was part of a bigger run up that has propelled the major gauges for roughly seven months straight. The advance has been driven by slowly improving economic news and tremendous amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus. But lately, a number of the reports have been missing expectations, including readings on jobs, manufacturing and consumer confidence earlier this week.
Since bottoming at a 12-year low March 9, the S&P 500 has gained 56%, and the Dow has gained around 48% as of Thursday's close. After hitting a six-year low, the Nasdaq has gained nearly 64%.
Troubled lender CIT launched a debt-exchange plan as part of its efforts to restructure and avoid bankruptcy. But the company said if the plan is not successful, it will likely file for Chapter 11 protection.
Apple shares gained after both Morgan Stanley and UBS issued bullish notes on the company's forecast.
On the economic front, the U.S. Labor Department released its monthly jobs report, showing that the economy lost 263,000 jobs in September, much worse than economists had forecast.
Employers were expected to have cut 175,000 jobs from their payrolls in September after paring a revised 201,000 in August, according to a Briefing.com consensus.
Treasury prices tiptoed lower, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.22% from Thursday’s 3.19%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The price of a barrel of oil sank 87 cents to $69.70 U.S.
Gold prices gained $4 to $1,004 U.S. an ounce.
