Stocks in triple-digit losses on Bay, Wall streets

The S&P/TSX composite index for a month

Stock markets went into sharp retreat on Monday amid a pullback in oil prices and some mixed earnings news.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 311.50 points at 9,126.15.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was off 289.60 points at 7,841.73, while Nasdaq dropped 64.86 points to 1,608.21.

Much of the tone was coming from Bank of America Corp., which warned of deepening loan defaults even though the company reported a profit of $2.81 billion US for the first quarter.

In the wake of the news, the financial services sub-index on the TSX was down more than five per cent.

Light, sweet oil for May closed down $4.45 US at $45.88 per barrel.

The TSX energy sub-index fell nearly 6.5 per cent.

Gold futures rose $19.60 to finish at $887, helping propel the gold sub-index higher by 6.8 per cent.