Equity markets in Canada’s largest centre tumbled on Friday as renewed concern about oversupply weighed on oil prices, sending shares of energy producers lower.
The S&P/TSX composite index subtracted 153.62 points, or 1%, to greet noon at 14,617.10, looking on track for a loss of 2% on the week.
The Canadian dollar tanked 0.74 cents to 78.05 cents U.S.
Metals stocks caused the markets the most trouble Friday morning, as Capstone Mining capsized five cents, or 4.2%, to $1.14, while Teck Resources surrendered 74 cents, or 4.1%, to $17.17.
Financials declined as Toronto-Dominion Bank lost 0.9% to $53.40, and Royal Bank of Canada shed 0.8% to $75.73.
In the energy sector, Suncor Energy gave back 1.3% to $34.91, and Canadian Natural Resources fell 1.5% to $35.82.
Oil's latest drop was driven by a report from the International Energy Agency that cautioned that the global supply glut was showing no signs of abating.
Health-care stocks tried to minimize the damage, with Valeant Pharmaceutical shares gaining $3.19, or 1.3%, to pause for lunch at $247.53
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that the number of jobs decreased about a thousand in February, driving the unemployment rate up 0.2 percentage points to 6.8%, with more people looking for work.
In the 12 months to February, employment increased by 130,000, or 0.7%, with most of the growth in the second half of the period.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday that Canada's federal budget will show a deficit of just over $2 billion in the current fiscal year and will be balanced in the year starting April 1.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange tumbled 9.09 points to 664.68
All but one of the 14 Toronto subgroups were lower by midday, with metals and mining collapsing 2.7%, while global base metals shed 2.2% of their strength, and energy weakened 2.1%
The lone holdout was health-care, up 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded sharply lower on Friday morning, as investors paid attention to economic data amid renewed dollar strength and weaker oil prices.
The Dow Jones Industrials went south 237.06 points, or 1.3%, to 17,657.96, with IBM leading all blue chips lower.
The S&P 500 lost 23.37 points to 2,042.58, with all sectors in the red.
The NASDAQ index erased 49.94 points to 4,843.35
Dow Jones reports that prosecutors are interviewing people tied to investor Bill Ackman in a case involving potential manipulation of Herbalife's stock. Ackman has had a long-standing short position in Herbalife, saying the nutritional supplements maker is a pyramid scheme.
He has also told the media he has not heard from the FBI or the Justice Department, and that he's happy to answer any questions they may have for him.
Google is not planning to compete aggressively with soon-to-be-public GoDaddy in the internet domain space, according to a report in Friday's New York Post.
Pfizer's pain drug Lyrica did not meet goals in a study that examined its effectiveness in treating adolescents with fibromyalgia.
The U.S. dollar rose more than 0.5% to a new 52-week high, on track for its first close above 100 since April 2003. The euro extended losses to fall below $1.05.
The U.S. Producer Price index for February showed a decline of 0.5%, missing estimates of a 0.3% gain.
Consumer sentiment data showed a preliminary read of 91.2 in March versus 95.4 in February.
Prices for 10-year U.S. Treasuries regained lost strength, pushing yields back down to Thursday’s 2.10%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices shrank $1.74 to $45.31 U.S.
Gold prices moved lower 20 cents to $1,151.7 0 U.S.
