It was the fourth day in a row that Wall Street markets had opened lower.
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Nine of the 10 major S&P sectors were lower, with five of the 10 down more than 1 percent.
The loonie traded at 76.44 cents US, up 0.16 from Wednesday.
The Standard and Poor’s/TSX Composite Index suffered its second day of triple digit losses, falling almost 299.63 points to set a new 52-week low at 13,737 points, taking a big bite out of Canadians’ pension and investment savings.
Selling in emerging-market currencies intensified after Kazakhstan switched to a free float for the tenge, triggering a 23 percent slide.
The Capped Materials Index gained 0.49 percent, mainly on the strength of gold stocks. North American commodity carloads fell 5.8 percent in the week ended August. 15, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence report. The nation’s largest lenders begin reporting third-quarter earnings next week.
Liberty was down 1.9 per cent at $29.83.
“The U.S. seems to be the only area of positivity when it comes to global GDP”, he said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 212.92 points, or 1.2 percent, to 17,135.81.
Among the factors causing the market downturns is the global uncertainty following China’s devaluation of its currency. “This negative momentum will continue to weigh on U.S. equities”.
In a strong sign that the Fed is considering a September rate hike, the minutes from the FOMC said the pace of job gains had been “solid”, with a range of labor market indicators suggesting that under-utilization of labor resources had continued to diminish.
Canada’s benchmark stock index hit an eight-month low Thursday on concerns about slowing global economic growth and low oil prices.
Gold futures ended sharply higher with investors seeking the safe haven appeal of the precious metal with the riskier equity markets in U.S. and Europe declining, after some soft inflation data. Economists expected jobless claims to edge down to 270,000 from the 274,000 originally reported for the previous week.
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The benchmark measure is stuck in the tightest trading range since 1927, down 3.5 percent from a record reached in May. The overall financials group, which accounts for more than a fifth of the index’s weight, slipped 0.6 percent. The consumer discretionary index’s 1.9-per-cent fall led the decliners. The shares were sold at a discount.
