Canada’s stock exchange lost its footing today as a slide in oil prices slammed energy stocks.
The TSX dropped 80 points, led lower by the oil-dependent energy sector which tumbled 4.6 percent.
Oil plunged, down $4.24 to $50.39 US a barrel as supply smothered demand.
Accelerating oil’s decline was news of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter, intensifying production to record levels.
According to Bloomberg, oil prices have fallen to their lowest level in more than a year.
The drop in oil prices slammed Canadian energy companies as investors dumped stocks. Cenovus Energy was down 8.3 percent, Crescent Bay Energy dropped 5.8 percent, and Suncor fell 4.1 percent, and Baytex Energy lost 2.3 percent.
Materials dropped 2.3 percent as the price of gold fell.
All told, seven of 11 of the index’s sectors traded lower.
In New York, action was light on a compressed trading day on Wall Street due to Thanksgiving.
But it was more on the same as the Dow, which was off by 178 points with energy being the biggest drag.
Chevron lost 3.3 percent while Exxon Mobile retreated by 2.6 percent.
The tech sector stumbled, impacting both the Dow and to a lesser extent, the Nasdaq which only lost 33 points.
Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet, collectively known as the FAANG stocks, were all in the red today.
Both gold and the loonie lost ground against a strengthening greenback. Gold dropped $4.60 to $1,223 an ounce while the Canadian dollar weakened by 26/100ths of a cent to $0.7555 US.
