Financials led the way to a steep, triple-digit loss on the Toronto stock market Monday afternoon as bank stocks lost ground amid concerns about the health of emerging markets.
The S&P/TSX composite index fell 135.47 points, or 1%, to end the day at 13,582.29, on top of a 1% slide last week, with energy stocks also sharply lower amid drops in crude and natural gas prices.
The Canadian dollar dipped another 0.38 cents to 89.98 cents U.S.
BMO Financial Group is in talks to buy British investment firm F&C Asset Management in a potential deal worth roughly $1.3 billion. Bank of Montreal dropped $1.54, or 2.1%, to $70.46, but it was Scotiabank which sustained the largest loss in the sector, down $1.36, or 2.2%, to $61.69.
The gold sector fell as Barrick Gold faded 44 cents to $20.61 while Kinross Gold declined 14 cents to $5.01
The energy sector stepped back as Cenovus Energy slid 31 cents to $28.87.
Encana dropped 23 cents to $19.95 as February natural gas fell 19 cents to $4.99 per million BTUs. Prices had earlier spiked to a four- year high of $5.44 due to extreme cold covering great patches of North America.
March copper fell a cent to $3.26 U.S. a pound and the base metals group was down 1.4%. Sherritt International dipped four cents to $3.54.
Techs also weighed with BlackBerry 10 cents lower to $10.84.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange plummeted 15.56 points to 951.25
All but two of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower on the day. Gold tanked 2.6%, while financials slid 1.5%, and materials faltered 1.3%.
The two gainers were in global base metals, up 0.4%, and telecoms, ahead 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks lost some more ground Monday following last week's big sell off, as turmoil in emerging markets and a slew of corporate results this week kept the market on edge.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 41.23 points to close at 15,837.88
The S&P 500 index faded 8.73 points to 1,781.56. The NASDAQ dropped 44.56 points to 4,083.61
Last week was a rough one for U.S. stocks. The Dow shed around 2% Friday to end the week down 3.5%. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 both closed more than 2% lower Friday.
Strong earnings from Dow component Caterpillar helped to keep the broader market's losses at a minimum. Shares were up nearly 6% after the construction equipment company easily blew past earnings and sales estimates, and approved a new $10-billion U.S. stock buyback program.
Shares of Twitter plunged. Fellow social media companies Facebook and LinkedIn also were markedly lower.
The biggest decliners on the NASDAQ were biotechnology companies such as Celgene and Alexion Pharmaceuticals. ThePowerShares QQQ Trust, a widely-held exchange-traded fund that tracks the NASDAQ 100, is now down more than 2% for the year. And some are worried that the ETF will fall even further.
Investors will get results from 130 of the companies in the S&P 500 this week. Apple is scheduled to report results after the closing bell. Shares of Apple were higher despite the overall weakness in tech.
Google announced it acquired London-based artificial intelligence firm DeepMind Technologies. It's the latest in a series of start-up purchases by the tech giant as it looks to beef up its expertise in artificial intelligence and robotics.
Google shares were down 2%, adding to a steep slide over the past few days.
One trader said investors were selling Google shares to buy Apple stock in anticipation of strong results after the closing bell.
Sony shares slid after the firm's debt rating was downgraded to "junk" by Moody's, with the agency warning that profitability at the tech company would likely remain weak and volatile.
Shares of Vodafone tumbled after AT&T said Monday it would not purchase the British telecom company. There had been recent speculation that a bid was imminent.
In economic news, new home sales plunged 7% in December from November, according to the Commerce Department. December new home sales were up 4.5% from a year ago.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell, spiking yields to 2.77% from Friday’s 2.74%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices picked up 11 cents to $95.83 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices skidded $8.20 to $1,255.20 U.S. an ounce.
