The Toronto stock market fell heavily mid-afternoon Tuesday as a move by Saudi Arabia to cut oil prices to U.S. customers sent crude reeling to four-year lows and pushed energy stocks sharply lower.
The S&P/TSX composite index plummeted 147.19 points or 1%, to end Tuesday at 14,390.43
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.40 cents to 87.64 cents U.S.
The TSX energy sector fell, with major losers including Athabasca Oil, which plunged 9.7% to $3.16 while Canadian Natural Resources dropped 3.9% to $36.80.
The major corporate story of the session involved Scotiabank which announced it's cutting 1,500 jobs company-wide -- about two-thirds of them in Canada.
It's posting a $341-million after-tax charge for the fourth quarter, which will reduce earnings by 28 cents a share. Part of that is for severance costs but Scotiabank is also taking a number of other steps, including an additional $109 million of loan loss provisions related to the Caribbean region.
It will also write down the value of its investment in a Venezuelan bank by $129 million and take a $47-million charge related to unremitted dividends from Banco del Caribe in Venezuela. Its shares lost $1.59, or 2.3%, to $67.19.
Elsewhere on the TSX, other resource sectors registered sharp losses amid data showing the euro-zone economy in precarious shape. The European Commission says growth will come in at 0.8% this year, down from the 1.2% growth it forecast this spring.
The base metals sector lost with December copper down five cents to $3.02 U.S. a pound. Teck Resources lopped off 74 cents, or 4.2%, to $17.09
The gold sector declined as Barrick Gold fell back 48 cents, or 3.6%, to $13.06, and Goldcorp declined 41 cents, or 1.9%, to $21.00.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 14.98 points to 751.12
Nine of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower on the day, with energy trailing 4.2%, gold sliding 3.4%, and the metals and mining sector, off 2.8%.
The five gainers were led by information technology, ahead 1.7%, telecoms, moving up 1.1%, and consumer staples, up 0.9%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks mainly declined on Tuesday, a day after benchmarks rose to records, as the price of oil slid to a three-year low and Americans cast ballots in midterm elections.
The Dow Jones Industrials inched higher 17.60 points to 17,383.84
The S&P 500 dropped 5.71 points to 2,012.10. The NASDAQ index lost 15.27 points to 4,623.64.
Procter & Gamble led blue-chip gains and Caterpillar led the losses.
JPMorgan Chase also weighed on the Dow after the bank disclosed the Department of Justice was conducting a criminal probe of its foreign-exchange business.
The Commerce Department reported U.S. factory orders fell 0.6% in September.
A separate report Tuesday had the trade gap expanding in September as exports slowed from a record, illustrating the impact of softer global growth on the U.S. economy.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell, raising yields to Monday’s 2.34%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices tailed off $1.64 to $77.14 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices docked $5.80 to $1,165.80 U.S. an ounce.
