Toronto stocks fell Friday, deepening the losses of the last few days, as the market reacted to lower gold and other commodity prices and an economic report that led investors to believe interest rate cuts might not be on the horizon.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 75.63, or 0.60%, to 12,477.97.

The index has fallen by 3.45% over the last three sessions.

Nine of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were down. The exception was the energy sector, which rebounded 0.72% after three days of significant losses.

Light, sweet crude futures rose 72¢ to close at US$56.31, bouncing back somewhat from big losses earlier in the week.

Petro-Canada was up 42¢, or 0.95%, to $44.54.

The materials sector was off 1.17%, while gold fell back 1.53%.

Gold futures fell $19.30, or 3.1%, to close at US$606.90 on a strengthening U.S. dollar.

Yamana Resources Inc. lost 42¢, or 3.01%, to $13.53.

The utilities sector fell 1.29%. Transalta Corp. lost 16¢, or 0.59%, to $26.89.

In economic news, Statistics Canada reported the nation’s unemployment rate at 6.1% in December, down from 6.3% in November.


The S&P TSX Venture Exchange dropped 21.27, or 0.75%, to 2,822.23.

In New York, markets fell on a strong jobs report that burst hopes of an interest rate cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 82.68 points at 12,398.01, the S&P 500 fell 8.63 points at 1,409.71, the Nasdaq composite lost 19.18 points to close at 2,434.25.