TSX takes another hit

TSX takes another hit


The 2008 trading year continued to deteriorate Monday as the Toronto stock markets sustained another sharp loss on worries about the depth of an economic slowdown in the United States following the release of a dismal U.S. employment report on Friday.
New York markets managed to eke out some gains on hopes of substantial interest rate cuts.

"I think today there's a continuation of what we saw last week that there's worries about how much growth will slow down," said Kate Warne, Canadian market specialist at Edward Jones in St. Louis.

"It's affecting all of the things that are tied into global growth and we're likely to see this continue for a while until people remember that even if things slow down, there is still value in many of these stocks and we'll see a bounce back at some stage."

The S&P/TSX composite index tumbled 159.71 points to 13,618.87 on top of a 200-point fall on Friday. The TSX Venture Exchange moved down 38.68 points to 2,819.98.
The Canadian dollar declined further after a weak Ivey Purchasing Managers Index reading and the December U.S. jobs report helped sink the currency by more than one U.S. cent on Friday.

On Monday, the currency declined 0.43 of a cent (U.S.) to 99.44 cents.
New York's Dow Jones industrials ticked 27.31 points higher to 12,827.49 after plunging 464.64 points in the first three days of 2008 trading.

The Nasdaq composite index was down 5.19 points to 2,499.46 while the S&P 500 index inched 4.55 points higher to 1,416.18.

On the TSX, the energy sector was off 1.14 per cent as oil prices continued to slide from the $100 a barrel mark reached twice last week. The February crude oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange moved down $2.82 to $95.09 a barrel. The Canadian Press


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