Toronto stocks dive as credit fears rattle

The Toronto Stock Exchange's main index ended the week sharply lower on Friday in an across-the-board fall as worries over more credit losses in the United States continued to inject pessimism into the market. The session extended the week's declines in what analysts said was a correction after the highs reached at the end of October.
The market is down 3.4 percent for the week. News that US bank Wachovia Corp had incurred deep losses on mortgage securities set the tone throughout the day as worries that the credit squeeze could hurt Canadian banks prompted the broad selloff.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said it would take a fourth-quarter writedown of C$463 million on securities tied to the US mortgage market. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 258.77 points, or 1.83 percent, at 13,869.82 with every sector ending in negative territory.
The energy, financial and materials sectors, which make up about three-quarters of the index, had the biggest losses as they were hurt by the credit jitters and softer commodity prices. The energy sector was down 2 percent while crude oil stepped away from the record high hit Wednesday.
Suncor Energy was down C$2.17, or 2.1 percent, at C$102.22, and Petro-Canada fell C$1.39, or 2.5 percent, to C$54.29. Crude was up 86 cents at $96.32 a barrel, but well off its high of $98.62.
Financials slid 1.9 percent with CIBC down 9 Canadian cents, or 0.1 percent, at C$96.24. Elsewhere in the sector Royal Bank of Canada fell C$1.30, or 2.5 percent, to C$50.55. The materials sector, home to resource shares, fell 1.2 percent as the price of gold was flat and Goldcorp Inc posted a lower than expected third-quarter profit.
Goldcorp was down 86 Canadian cents, or 2.6 percent, at C$32.82, and Barrick Gold was down 24 Canadian cents, or 0.6 percent, at C$42.91. Research In Motion was the biggest decliner by weight for a second day in a row following an announcement from Cisco Systems that it had seen dramatic decreases in orders from US banks. The BlackBerry maker fell C$10.34, or 8.8 percent, to C$106.76 while the tech sector gave up 2.2 percent.