Toronto stocks sank on Thursday following New York markets lower as economic reports highlighted concerns over the health of the U.S. economy.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 306.52 points, or 2.27%, at 13,206.14. All of the 10 of TSX main sectors ended the day lower.

The financial sector was down 4.1%, with CIBC falling $3.71 to $59.58, while Toronto-Dominion Bank lost $3.18, or 5%, to $60.04.

The materials sector fell 2.1%, weighed down by losses in fertilizer companies and miners. Agnico-Eagle was down $5.02 at $59.78, while fertilizer producer Potash Corp of Saskatchewan fell $5.38, or 2.7%, to $196.85.

Shares of Aurelian Resources jumped 41.8%, or $1.86, to $6.31 after Kinross Gold said it will buy the company for just over $1 billion in a friendly deal.

Kinross was down $2.14, or 10.3%, at $18.70, hurt in part by the uncertainty surrounding Aurelian’s big Fruta del Norte gold discovery in Ecuador, which Kinross is set to take over.

Synenco Energy shares shot up 14% after French energy group Total sweetened its takeover bid for the oil sands start-up to about $530.5 million. Synenco rose $1.25 to $10.21.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 38.36 points, or 1.73%, to 2,184.77.

The Canadian dollar slipped 0.19¢ from Wednesday’s close to end at US98.69¢.

In New York, U.S. stocks fell after surprisingly weak reports on home sales and unemployment claims renewed investors’ fears about weakness in the U.S. economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 283.10 points, or 2.43%, to 11,349.28. The S&P 500 fell 29.65 points, or 2.31%, to 1,252.54. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 45.77 points, 1.97%, to 2,280.11.

The U.S. Labour Department reported that the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits jumped 34,000 to 406,000 last week. The numbers match a three-year high, suggesting no stabilization in sight for labor markets.

Market losses deepened after the National Association of Realtors reported a larger-than-expected drop in sales of existing homes in June. Sales were off 2.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.86 million units. The decline was more than double the drop expected by Wall Street.