By Jeff Sanford

(November 22 – 17:30 ET) – Sideswiped by a broad selloff, the TSE 300 opened lower, and continued to fall until flattening out in the early afternoon. It finished the day at 8,844.60, a drop of 169.26 points.

The decline was widespread, with the only the gold and real estate sub-indices finishing higher — seems investors were looking for a safe haven. Gold ended the day up 3.02%.

On the downside, the consumer products sector was off 4.18%. Financial services fell 2.47%, while industrials were down 2.54% and forest products fell 1.68%.

The downward trend was most obvious in the results for individual issues. Overall, 768 issues declined, while only 318 advanced. Volume was 144 million shares.

Nortel was the most heavily traded stock on the day. It finished down 1.35% at $58.45.

Stelco was heavily sold today — it plunged 6.36% to finish at $3.68 — as analysts warned that cheap steel imports are set to impact the fourth-quarter profits of Canadian steel makers.

Natural gas producer Canadian 88, which has been on the auction block for over a month, looked like a better deal today. The heavily traded issue was down 6.45% at $2.90.

Sun Life was also heavily traded, and sold. It plummeted 7.42% to end the day at $31.20. Manulife was also heavily traded, finishing down 4.44% at $35.50.

The techs were also hit hard today. Research In Motion was down 16.35% at $111.05, 360networks was down 5.42% at $20.05 and C-Mac was down 3.50% at $67.55.

Seagram was knocked around a bit as well, losing 4.22% to close at $80.50.

Wi-Lan bounced after the massive drops of the past few days, rocketing up 19.46% to close at $11.05.

The CDNX also had a rough day, finishing the day down 64.88 points at 2,982.14. Volume was 38 million shares, with 381 issues advancing and 219 declining.

The loonie crept back slightly today, climbing 0.28% to close at US64.63¢.

Sellers were not hard to find in U.S. markets today either, on the day before Thanksgiving. Worried that a slowing economy is going to affect corporate earnings, investors looked to get out of the market where they could.

The Nasdaq composite dropped 116 points to 2,755. It’s now off 19% since the U.S. election.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished off 95 points at 10,399, while the S&P 500 finished the day off 25 points at 1,322.