Canada's main stock index fell on Monday due to losses in the financial and energy sectors amid a revival in trade war fears after China decided to impose additional duties on U.S. products.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index dumped 164.12 points, or 1.1%, to 15,203.17
The Canadian dollar lost 0.19 cents at 77.4 cents U.S.
The financial and energy sectors that together make up for more than half the weight of TSX slipped about 35 points each.
Enbridge and TransCanada Corp fell more than 1% each and were the biggest drag on the energy sector as crude prices slipped.
Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto Dominion Bank slipped more than 0.5% each and were the biggest lags on the heavyweight financial sector.
The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was the shares of the printing company Transcontinental, which rose 6.1% on a deal to buy the U.S. unit of plastics packager Coveris Holdings S.A for $1.70 billion.
The largest decliner was Prometic Life Sciences, down 6.8%, after two brokerages trimmed their price targets on the stock.
Among the most active Canadian stocks by volume were Prometic Life Sciences, Aurora Cannabis, and Neovasc Inc.
China has slapped extra tariffs of up to 25% on 128 U.S. products including frozen pork, as well as wine and certain fruits and nuts, in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.
In the economic docket, the IHS Markit Purchasing Managers Index registered 55.7 in March, little changed from 55.6 in February and above the neutral 50.0 threshold for the 25th consecutive month.
Markit said the headline PMI reading in March was supported by a robust and accelerated rise in production volumes across the manufacturing sector.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange sagged 10.28 points, or 1.3%, to 786.39
All but three of the 12 TSX subgroups remained negative by midday, with health-care down 4%, information technology settling 2%, and energy off 1.9%.
The three gainers were gold, brighter by 1.9%, while materials improved 0.4%, and utilities advanced 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 519.08 points, or 2.2%, to 23,584.03, with a decline in Wal-Mart offsetting gains in UnitedHealth.
The S&P 500 dumped 62.91 points, or 2.4%, to 2,577.85 and entered correction territory, with tech falling more than 2.5%.
The NASDAQ Composite index jettisoned 186.6 points, or 2.6%, to 6,876.79, also entering correction — as Amazon dropped 4.9%.
The e-commerce giant's stock fell 4% after Trump tweeted on Saturday that Amazon was scamming the U.S. Postal Service, adding the service loses "billions of dollars" delivering packages for the e-commerce giant.
Amazon has been one of the best-performing stocks over the past year, rising nearly 64% in that time period.
Tech shares continued to be under pressure on Monday, with shares of Facebook, Netflix and Alphabet all trading sharply lower. Last month, concerns over how Facebook handles data collected from its users sent the entire sector lower. Facebook dropped 10.4% in March.
Snap's stock also fell 7.8% Monday after MoffettNathanson reiterated its sell rating, noting it found students were "uniformly disapproving" of the company's app redesign.
Elsewhere in corporate news, Humana shares jumped 5 % following reports that Wal-Mart was interested in acquiring the health insurer.
Though discussions remain in early stages, sources confirmed to the media that Wal-Mart is interested in strengthening its existing relationship with Humana amid a rush of deal speculation in the industry.
In economic news, the IHS Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI rose to 55.6 in March, its highest level since 2015. Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index reached 59.3 last month. Economists expected the number to hit 60.0.
China announced overnight Monday it had implemented tariffs on 128 types of U.S. imports. The goods hit with the charges the list of products proposed by Beijing in March and comes as a direct response to President Donald Trump signing off on tariffs on imported steel and aluminum last month. China said in March that those goods had an import value of $3 billion in 2017.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year Treasury note gained ground, lowering yields to Thursday’s 2.74%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost $1.90 a barrel at $63.04 U.S.
Gold prices gained $15.80 to $1,343.10 U.S. an ounce.
