North American stocks continued their slide Wednesday, with the Toronto market hit hard by falling commodity prices and U.S. markets waylaid by worries over rising interest rates and a slowing domestic economy.

The S&P/TSX composite index lost 190.72, or 1.63%, to 11,475.42.

Eight of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were down, with the energy index plunging 4.01%.

The benchmark contract for crude ended down $1.68 at US$70.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Canadian Natural Resources fell $3.07, or 5.20%, to $55.98.

The materials index fell 1.85%. Gold for August delivery ended down $2.10 at US$632.60 an ounce.

Kinross Gold Corp. shed 41¢, or 3.45%, to $11.48.

The information technology group fell 1.44%. Nortel Networks lost 6¢, or 2.42%, to $2.42.

The Canadian dollar dipped 0.04 of a cent to US89.81¢.

The S&P/TSX Venture Exchange index fell 34.38, or 1.25%, to 2,722.69.

In New York, markets continued to drop in the wake of comments from the head of the Federal Reserve that inflation was becoming a concern.

The Dow industrials was down 71.24 points at 10,930.90, the Nasdaq composite index fell 10.98 points to 2,151.80, its lowest level since November. The S&P 500 Index dropped 7.70 points to 1,256.15.