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Toronto stocks plunge 600 points
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Mon Jan 21, 5:43 PM


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By Leah Schnurr

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TORONTO (Reuters) - The Toronto Stock Exchange's main index plunged more than 600 points on Monday, its biggest drop since October 2000, as fears of a U.S. recession dragged the index to its lowest close in more than a year.


The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 604.99 points, or 4.75 percent, at 12,132.13 with all of its 10 sectors in negative territory. It was the biggest one-day net drop since October 25, 2000, when it closed down 840.26 points.


In the past five sessions, the S&P/TSX composite has lost more than 1,500 points, or 11.4 percent, wiping out all of 2007's gains. Monday was the lowest closing level since early November of 2006.


Resource issues led Monday's freefall, with the energy and materials sectors each giving up 5.7 percent. The groups have been stung by worries that demand for resources could be dampened by an economic slowdown.


Commodity prices weighed on the sectors, as oil and gold prices fell, following the direction of global stocks.


Suncor Energy tumbled $4.52, or 4.9 percent, to $88.32, while Potash Corp of Saskatchewan was down $5.93, or 4.7 percent, at $119.57.


The heavyweight financial sector shed 3.9 percent, with Royal Bank of Canada and Manulife Financial hitting 52-week lows. Royal finished down $1.79, or 3.8 percent, at $45.92, while Manulife was off 88 cents, or 2.4 percent, at $35.66.


The banking group has been hit by worries over fallout from the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown and massive writedowns from financial institutions on both sides of the border.


Around the world, stocks slumped on jitters that a U.S. downturn could lead to a slowdown in global economic growth, while markets in the United States were closed for Martin Luther King Day.


"I think there's some people that have just thrown in the towel, as we can see, and took their signal from what happened overseas," said Brian Pow, vice-president, research and equity analyst at Acumen Capital Partners in Calgary.


Last week, the White House unveiled an economic stimulus plan that was panned by analysts and markets. On Friday, U.S. President George W. Bush called for a package worth up to $150 billion in tax cuts and other measures to boost the economy.


Analysts were unsure how much longer the nosedive could continue, but said the overall trend will be to the downside. All eyes will be on what U.S. markets do when they reopen on Tuesday.


"There's a great deal of uncertainty around," said John Ing, president of Maison Placements Canada.


"Every day there seems to be a new credit problem, there seems to be a disappointing corporate loss."


Despite a strong start for the TSX at the beginning of the year, the index was soon caught up in global uncertainty over the economic health of the United States, Canada's biggest trading partner.


The index is off 12 percent since the year began, and is 17 percent below the record close reached in July 2007.


Elsewhere on Monday, Quebecor World Inc was down 17 cents, or 50.8 percent, at 16.5 cents as it applied for creditor protection after conditions for a $400 million rescue financing were not met.

After the closing bell, the battered commercial printer said it had obtained the court protection.

Market volume was 333 million shares worth $5.5 billion. Decliners widely outpaced advancers 1,643 to 129. The blue chip S&P/TSX 60 index closed down 34.70 points, or 4.66 percent, at 710.51.

(Editing by Rob Wilson)


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/0801 ... stocks_col

   

one day economy is doing great , dollar is surging to record highs , low unemployment , good federal budget introduced, all indicators were it was doing good.

then all of a sudden its plunging ? i'm thinking i'm not the only one some what confused by all of this .
i realsie the american housing market is having some issues but ours isn't facing the same trouble .
but tomorrow is another day and see where it goes then.

   

The Stock exchanges all over the world lost 5 to 7 %...

Oil too, is down to $ 89 a barrel...

   

well a small drop in price of oil is likely a good thing for consumers tired of geting ripped off at the pumps .


but the drop in the stock market is a concern if it remains down there or a trend.

   

Stock markets are all about speculation, and so is the oil-price. Oil is much more than just the price at the pump though...

The trend now for stockmarkets is down. What goes up must come down, and what comes down, goes up again too. Just make sure you make wise decisions...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/dollar_markets

   

And who thought I was paranoid for buying gold back when it was $400 per ounce?

   

We should have gotten into oil in '98


source

   

monday was nothing more than low volume panic selling, we're seeing a huge bounce this morning already. the buyers are back in town looking for bargains.

   

HBM-T

   

GREAT necro... Newbie I take it?

(wtf does HBM-T mean?)

   

Google is your friend.
HudBay Minerals

   

-T?

Still, wth is his post about?

(do you really think I am going to do the homework of a necre n00b?)

   

Why he'd come into a 1 year old thread to post that (as his 1st post no less), I don't know.

The "Google is your friend" remark, I got from the SQL server helpgroups I'm on.
It's the #1 answer to all questions.
Except on the Oracle where it's "RTFM".

   

I always google stuff I don't know, unless the info comes from n00bs. They can explain it to me themselves