North American stock markets suffered their worst meltdown since the global financial crisis as a collapse in oil prices triggered a plunge in the energy sector and prompted the loonie to take a dive.
The S&P/TSX composite index sank as much as 10 per cent in early Monday trading to hit a 14-month low. It lost 7.9 per cent or 1,283.94 points at 14,891.08 by early afternoon. The capped energy index decreased more than 23 per cent with Cenovus Energy Inc. down 48 per cent and Crescent Point Energy Corp. off 34 per cent.
The decreases came as crude oil prices initially fell to a four-year low in the steepest one-day decrease since the 1991 Gulf War. The action was ignited after Russia refused over the weekend to roll back production and Saudi Arabia responded by launching a crude war by vowing to ramp up output.
The April crude contract was down US$7.94 at US$33.34 per barrel and the April natural gas contract was up 1.6 cents at US$1.72 per mmBTU.
Early panic selling triggered volume alerts that briefly shut markets in the U.S. and Canada.
It prompted a broad-based selloff before more defensive sectors clawed back some of the losses and reverted to normalized activity, says Mike Archibald, vice-president and portfolio manager with AGF Investments Inc.
In addition, concerns persist about the economic impact of the spread of the novel coronavirus and geopolitical tensions after North Korea fired some missiles.
"It's kind of the perfect storm of bad events on the weekend and obviously that's culminating in a rush to the exits here this morning on a number of assets," he said in an interview.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 1,676.36 points or 6.5 per cent at 24,188.42. The S&P 500 index was down 181.48 points at 2,790.89, while the Nasdaq composite was down 456.52 points at 8,119.10.
The Canadian dollar traded sank to its lowest level since January 2019 by trading at an average of 73.66 cents US compared with an average of 74.51 cents US on Friday.
The April gold contract was down US$1.80 at US$1,670.60 an ounce and the May copper contract was down 4.75 cents at US$2.51 a pound.
Archibald expects the next positive development will likely come from global central banks which will provide more liquidity to the markets.
U.S. President Donald Trump will also likely move aggressively with fiscal stimulus such as tax cuts and delay tariffs to weaken the market falloff ahead of this fall's presidential election.
While those efforts may help longer term, a global slowdown is widely expected.
"There's no question there's a slowdown here and whether that results in a global recession or not, I'm not sure it matters that much," said Archibald.
Consumers are a little fearful of meeting in large venues which is putting pressure on businesses and contributing to some of the concerns, he said.
Dramatically lower energy prices is a big blow for Canadian producers who are mostly unable to earn a positive cash flow returns.
That's also hammering bank stocks, especially those with big exposure to oil and gas, led by the Bank of Montreal, whose shares fell more than 10 per cent, along with Scotiabank and National Bank.
In addition, 10-year U.S. treasury yields briefly dipped to another record low of 0.318 per cent.
"It's going to be harder for those guys to have positive earnings in this environment and I think that's part of the reason why you're seeing the pressure on the space as well."
