Higher crude and gold prices couldn’t help Canada’s main stock index from sinking to start the trading week as heightened fears over the new coronavirus continued to grip investors.
The S&P/TSX composite index lost 632.32 points or 5.3 per cent on the day to close at 11,228.49.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 582.05 points at 18,591.93. The S&P 500 index was down 67.52 points at 2,237.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 18.84 points at 6,860.67.
The Canadian dollar traded for 69.05 cents US compared with an average of 69.77 cents US on Friday.
The May crude contract was up 73 cents at US$23.36 per barrel and the May natural gas contract was down 0.2 of a cent at US$1.67 per mmBTU.
The April gold contract was up US$83 at US$1,567.60 an ounce and the May copper contract was down 7.1 cents at US$2.10 a pound.