Nov. 26, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) --
Canadian stocks hit the skids Thursday morning, following global shares lower after Dubai asked creditors if it can postpone $60 billion U.S. in payments until May.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index approached noon off 180.22 points, or 1.6%, to 11,456.68, wiping out some of its recent rise to multi-month highs.
Dubai's debt debacle drove up the value of safe haven currencies like the dollar and yen, which in turn fueled a drop in commodity prices, impacting the resource-heavy Canadian market.
Bay Street was a sea of red arrows, with gauges of every major sector moving down.
Weakness was most pronounced among base metal miners and energy stocks, while the Dubai debacle rattled financial stocks.
Still, volume was relatively light with most American traders away celebrating Thanksgiving.
The Diversified Metals and Mining Index was down, with Teck Cominco shares losing 2.5% even after workers at a major copper pit in Peru said they would sign a new contract today.
Energy stocks fell, as oil major Encana shares were off 1% after shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favor of splitting the company in two.
Financial shares also tumbled, with all of Canada's major banks losing ground.
In other corporate news, Onex Corp announced today that it has sold part of its interest in Emergency Medical Services Corporation in a secondary offering of 8 million shares of class A common stock at a price of $48.31 U.S. per share.
Onex shares were down fractionally.
Auto parts maker Magna International wants at least 400 million euros ($600 million) from Porsche for canceling a deal for Magna to build the Boxster. Magna shares slid 2.5%.
The Canadian dollar slid 1.40 cents to 94.26 cents U.S.
ON BAYSTREET
All but one of the 14 TSX subgroups stayed negative by midday. Metals and mining took the biggest hit at 2.9%, materials were off 2.7% and industrials slid 1.6%.
The lone gainer was in global base metals, inching ahead 0.1%.
The TSX Venture Exchange gave back 22.42 points to 1,412.73.
The price of a barrel of oil lost $1.79 to $76.17 U.S.
U.S. markets are shut down today for Thanksgiving. They will trade in an abbreviated session Friday.
