Roger Biduk - U.S. Job Losses Sink Bay Street

Roger Biduk writes:

The Toronto stock market sustained a triple-digit slide late in the morning in the wake of data showing the U.S. economy shed slightly more than half a million jobs during December.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index slid 131.2 points to 9,090.4, led lower by downturns in energy and financial stocks.
The TSX Venture Exchange was off 4.19 points to 895.28.

Statistics Canada reported the economy lost 34,400 jobs last month pushing the unemployment rate to 6.6 per cent from 6.3 per cent in November.

The CDN$ moved down 0.96 cent to 83.89 cents US as Statistics Canada reported that the value of building permits dropped 11.8 per cent in November to $4.8 billion. It was the third double-digit decrease for building permits in four months.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported that housing starts during December were little changed from the previous month. CMHC said that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of starts came in at just over 177,000, down marginally from 178,000 units in November.

The TSX energy sector was down 2.5 per cent as the February crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped $2.24 to US$39.46 a barrel. EnCana Corp. (TSX: ECA.TO) fell $1.76 to $56.34 and Suncor Inc. (TSX: SU.TO) gave back $1.24 to $27.58.

The financial sector eased one per cent as Royal Bank (TSX: RY.TO) fell back 67 cents to $37.03 and CIBC (TSX: CM.TO) declined $1.36 to $52.90.

The gold sector fell almost two per cent as the February bullion contract in New York moved down 80 cents to US$853.70. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX: G.TO) faded $1.54 to $32.05.

The base metals sector declined 3.5 per cent with Teck Cominco Ltd. (TSX: TCK-B.TO) down 34 cents to $7.08. Shares in HudBay Minerals Inc. (TSX: HBM.TO) were four cents higher to $3.68 after it said Friday it will shut down its Chisel North zinc mine and concentrator in Snow Lake, Man. due to low metals prices and the slumping global economy.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.45 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.3 per cent.
Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 1.24 per cent, Germany's DAX index dipped two per cent, and France's CAC-40 was down one per cent.

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