Commodity retreat drags TSX lower
Retreating prices for gold and oil pulled the S&P/TSX Composite index down more than 224 points on Tuesday.
The August gold futures contract fell $26.80 US to close at $867.90 US an ounce, while light, sweet crude oil for July delivery dropped $3.04 a barrel to settle at $131.31 US.
The S&P/TSX Composite was off 1.5 per cent to close at 14,736.2.
Among the sub-groups of the index, the gold group was off 5.4 per cent, while the materials group was down 3.6 per cent. The mining and energy groups were both down more than two per cent.
The downward trend also followed the Bank of Canada's surprise decision to leave a key interest rate unchanged at three per cent. The bank cited inflation risks for its decision to forego the rate cut that economists had overwhelmingly expected.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 9.44 points to close at 12,289.76, while Nasdaq slipped 10.5 point to end the trading session at 2,448.94.
Late Monday, Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke said the chances of an economic downturn in the United States had fallen, while interest pressures had risen. Markets took that to mean an interest rate increase was more of a possibility.
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