Markets ended the week with a thud, as technology stocks led the way down on Bay Street, while another batch of disappointing economic news sent Wall Street scurrying.

Toronto markets spent much of the day Friday catching up to the big declines on U.S. markets on Thursday, when Bay Street was closed for Canada Day. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down Friday 58.27 points or 0.68% at 8487.31. The only North American market to end the week ahead was the TSX Venture Exchange; it closed up 8.91 or 0.57% to 1579.26.

On Wall Street, all markets were down. The Dow Jones industrial average finished off 51.33 points or 0.5% to 10282.83, while the S&P 500 composite was down 3.56 or 0.32% AT 1125.38 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed off 8.89 points or 0.44% at 2006.66.

The Canadian dollar finished the week at US75.5¢, up 0.36 of a cent on weak economic news in the U.S.

In Toronto, all the sub-indices were down, except for gold and energy. Financial stocks were down 0.25% on the day.

The big drop in Toronto was in technology shares, off 3.15% as a group, thanks largely to trading in Nortel Networks Corp. More than 17 million Nortel shares traded hands with the stock closing down 65¢ to $6.04. The activity seemed due to a Wall Street Journal story about Nortel’s faulty accounting. As well, CIBC World Markets downgraded the shares to “sector performer,” while Nortel also said Friday morning its board of directors intends to seek repayment of any unjustified bonuses.

U.S. markets took it on the chin for the second day in a row after a surprising drop in job creation in the U.S. Investors were taken aback at the news that the U.S. economy added roughly 112,000 new positions in June — less than half the growth that economists were anticipating. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.6%.