Equity markets in Toronto slumped at the open on Thursday, weighed down by losses for heavyweight banking and energy stocks as investor fretted about low oil prices.
The S&P/TSX composite index hurtled lower 190.28 points, or 1.5%, to open Thursday at 12,536.52
The Canadian dollar was unchanged at 71.02 cents U.S.
TransCanada Corp sued the U.S government on Wednesday to reverse U.S. President Barack Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, and also plans to seek $15 billion in damages from a trade tribunal.
TransCanada shares slid $1.19, or 2.7%, to $43.42.
Bank of Nova Scotia is in discussions to sell a $1-billion vendor and equipment financing portfolio, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
Scotiabank shares lost 83 cents, or 1.5%, to $54.33.
Crescent Point Energy Corp cut its capital budget for 2016 by as much as 39% from 2015.
Crescent Point shares plummeted 95 cents, or 6.4%, to $13.90.
CIBC cut the target price on Bank of Montreal to $79.00 from $83.00
BMO shares docked $1.06, or 1.4%, to $73.86.
Cowen and Company started coverage on Bombardier Inc. with a market perform rating.
Bombardier shares tumbled six cents, or 4.7%, to $1.23.
RBC raised the rating on Centerra Gold Inc. to sector perform from underperform. Centerra shares hiked 64 cents, or 9.1%, to $7.71.
On the economic front, Western University’s IVEY Purchasing Managers Index rolled in this morning, showing a reading of 49.9 for December, compared to 63.6 for November 2015, and 55.4 for December 2014
The index asks purchasing managers whether they bought more for their firms during the month, less, or about the same. Any reading over 50 indicates an expansion; under 50, contraction.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange shed 4.28 points to 516.09
All but two of the 13 TSX subgroups were negative to start out, with metals and mining falling 7.3%, energy letting go of 2.8%, and health-care the worse by 2.7%.
The two gainers were gold, up 2.2%, and materials, inching up 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks traded sharply lower Thursday as China news overnight and a continued decline in oil prices renewed concerns about global economic growth.
The Dow Jones industrial average faltered 193.33 points, or 1.1%, to 16,713.18, with Cisco leading decliners and Wal-Mart the only gainer.
The S&P 500 slumped 27.28 points, or 1.4%, to 1,962.98. Information technology briefly fell 2% as one of the greatest decliners in S&P 500.
The NASDAQ index fell 80.04 points, or 1.7%, to 4,755.72.
Apple fell more than 2% to briefly trade below $98.00 U.S. a share.
In a light day of U.S. economic news, weekly jobless claims came in at 277,000. The December employment report is due Friday morning.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission suspended its circuit breaker system Thursday after trade in China was suspended for a second time in a week overnight. A 7% stock drop triggered a circuit breaker, with Chinese markets open for less than half an hour in total.
Overnight, the People's Bank of China set the yuan reference rate at 6.564 against the U.S. dollar, its lowest since 2011 and the largest daily change since Aug. 13
Prices for the 10-year Treasury fell back, raising yields to 2.18% from Wednesday’s 2.17%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices sank 76 cents a barrel to $33.21 U.S.
Gold prices grew $11.32 to $1,104.99 U.S. an ounce.
