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Mar. 30, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --
12:30 pm EST
Monday remained a uniformly disappointing day on equities markets throughout North America, with the increased likelihood of bankruptcy for General Motors and Chrysler. This, after the Obama administration said neither automaker submitted acceptable plans to get more bailout money.
The U.S. government has also forced out GM CEO Rick Wagoner and gave Chrysler a 30-day window to complete a proposed partnership with Italian automaker Fiat.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 321.18 points by the noon hour to 8,499.88 following Friday's round of profit-taking.
The TSX financial sector backed off as Royal Bank fell $1.39 to $35.60 while Scotiabank lost $1.54 to $30.34.
The Toronto market was under additional stress from the energy sector, as the rally on oil markets also ran out of gas. EnCana Corp. gave back $1.22 to $50.78 and Suncor Inc. fell $1.22 to $28.14.
The base metals sector retreated with Teck Cominco Ltd. down 57 cents to $7.16.
FNX Mining Company Inc shares retreated 77 cents to $4.08 as it reported a fourth-quarter loss of $397.4 million compared to a year-earlier profit of $32.3 million.
The gold sector was the only positive sector, as Barrick Gold Corp. gained $1.40 to $41.10.
Shares in Bombardier Inc. were up three cents at $3.03 after the aerospace division of the transportation manufacturer won another order for its in-development CSeries aircraft, this one worth about $1.44 billion U.S. based on list prices.
Bombardier said the firm order from Lease Corporation International Aviation Ltd., which leases aircraft to major airlines, comes with options for a further 20 of the regional jets.
On the economic front, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the worsening slump requires the use of "everything necessary" to spark growth, including possible steps by the Bank of Canada to inject money into the economy.
The recession is deepening and outweighs concerns that steps taken now could fuel inflation, Harper said. He didn't rule out additional fiscal stimulus, indicated global leaders are near consensus on rules for financial markets and said he's in close contact with President Barack Obama's administration on help for the automotive industry.
Canada's economy shrank at a 3.4% annual pace in the fourth quarter, the fastest since 1991, and reports have shown record job losses and trade deficits in recent months
The Canadian dollar was off 1.14 cents to 79.55 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
Of the 13 TSX subgroups, all but one were negative. Metals and mining stocks were down 7.5%, financials were off 5.7%, while energy stocks dove 4.5%.
Gold was the lone positive group, up 0.4%
The TSX Venture Exchange gave back 12.36 points to 948.66 while the Nasdaq Canada Index dipped 18.06 points to 446.31
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrials average tanked 277.02 points by the lunch hour, to 7,499.16.
The S&P 500 index lost 28.62 points to 787.32, while the Nasdaq subsided 52.06 points to 1,493.14. All three indexes experienced declines of 3% or more by the midday point.
Over the weekend, the U.S. government gave GM 60 days worth of financing to restructure, while Chrysler gets up to $6 billion U.S. GM shares plunged about 30%.
GM shares fell 24%, Ford Motor lost 6%, Toyota Motor lost 2%.
The banking group, consisting in part of Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase were among the decliners.
In other news, Fifth Third Bancorp said on Monday that it was selling 51% of its payments processing business to global buyout firm Advent International for $561 million U.S.
Treasury prices rallied, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.75% from 2.76% Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices sank $3.15 U.S. to $49.23 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices also slid over the noon hour by $5.60 U.S. to $919.70