Stocks on Bay Street traded lower Monday -- led by a drop in energy and mining stocks -as the price of oil slid and Goldman Sachs downgraded Potash Corp.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 302.47 points to 8,249.53.
In corporate news -- BlackBerry maker Research In Motion said it will oppose Certicom Corp's attempts to prevent RIM from acquiring it in a $66 million deal. Certicom intends to apply for an injunction preventing RIM from taking over the company for a previously announced offer price of $1.50 a share, RIM said in a statement.
Canadian miner Fronteer Development Group Inc. said it plans to buy Aurora Energy Resources Inc., in a stock deal worth about $110.3 million.
Goldman Sachs downgraded agricultural products maker Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, saying it expects a smaller crop in 2009 as falling grain prices delay planting decisions.
On the data front -- consumer confidence in Canada dropped for a third consecutive month in December, hitting a 27-year low as a ''psychology of recession'' tightened its grip on Canadians, the Conference Board of Canada said on Monday. The index in December fell to 67.7 from 71.0 in November, the lowest mark since the 63.0 recorded during the recession of 1981-82.
The Canadian dollar, meanwhile, slipped 0.03 cents to 81.89 cents US.
BAYSTREET
Only one of the TSX sub-groups traded hight today -- health-care stocks gained 0.26 percent.
On the downside -- mining stocks were off 7.70 percent followed by a 5.95 percent drop in energy issues and a 3.24 percent slump in industrial stocks.
Gold futures rose for the first session in three, with gold for February delivery closing up $9.80 at $847.20 US an ounce.
Meanwhile, the TSX Venture Exchange was off 7.02 points to 692.02 and the NASDAQ Canada was down 10.66 points at 429.05.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks retreated on Monday, with the consumer-discretionary and energy sectors hit hardest after Walgreen Co., the nation's largest drugstore chain, reported disappointing results and Toyota Motor Corp. forecast a loss for the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 59.42 points, or 0.7 percent, to 8519.69, and the S&P 500 lost 16.25 points, or 1.8 percent, at 871.63. The Nasdaq was off 31.97 points, or 2 percent, at 1532.35. Volume was on the light side.
Of the Dow's 30 components, 19 closed in the red, with the heaviest losses tallied by General Motors Corp. shares of which surrendered 21.6 percent.
Expectations for soft holiday sales may have stifled some retail names days before Christmas. The sector has been hurt by slowing spending and this past weekend by a winter storm across the northern part of the country.
Among individual chain-store stocks, shares of Sears Holdings gave up 6.7 percent to $36.50, Macy's fell 12.2 percent to $9.32, and Kohls lost 4.7 percent to $33.99.
Shares of Target were off by 4.6 percent at $32.83, while its discount competitor Wal-Mart edged up a fraction of a percent to $55.98.
AIG has been allocated more than $150 billion in government financing and was effectively nationalized in September. The company, which nearly collapsed earlier this year, has said it will repay the government loans by selling assets.
The benchmark 10-year note fell 9/32 to 114 7/32 and its yield rose to 2.14 percent from 2.07 percent on Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite direction. The 10-year yield dipped below 3 percent in November for the first time since the note was first issued in 1962.
Crude futures tumbled nearly 6 percent to below $40 a barrel as demand concerns outweighed thinking that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries might further cut cartel members' production quotas. Crude for February delivery ended down $2.45 at $39.91 US a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
