TORONTO – The Toronto Stock Exchange lost nearly two per cent of its value in early trading Thursday morning amid fresh upheaval around the world following another early shutdown of two major Chinese stock markets.
The TSX was down 226.22 points at 12,500.58 points shortly after North American stock markets opened at 9:30 a.m. ET.
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The Canadian dollar remained near 12 1/2-year lows at 70.94 cents U.S., down 0.08 cents from Wednesday’s close.
The world’s financial markets are being tossed by developments in China, where the central bank made a surprise move to adjust its currency rate and two major stock exchanges were closed early Thursday because of a sudden drop in stock prices.
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In New York, the Dow Jones was down 317.90 points or 1.9 per cent at 16,588.61, the S&P 500 index declined 35.79 points or 1.8 per cent at 1,954.47 and the Nasdaq fell by 98.62 points or 2.2 per cent at 4,345.370.
On the commodity markets, February contracts for crude oil were down $1.14 at US$32.83 per barrel and gold futures rose $11 to US$1,102.90 an ounce.
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