Slumping oil prices dragged Canada’s largest stock market lower as the price of crude fell for a seventh straight day in a row.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index fell 165.21 points, or more than 1%, to 15,379.61, with nearly all sectors finishing the day to the negative.
The April crude contract was down 68 cents at US$47.72 per barrel amid a report from OPEC that showed Saudi Arabia pumped more than 10 million barrels of oil a day in February, reversing a third of its cuts from the previous month.
The weakness in crude pulled the Canadian dollar down by 0.22 of a U.S. cent to US74.16¢.
In New York, major indices dipped as the U.S. Federal Reserve kicked off a two-day policy rate meeting. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 44.11 points to 20,837.37, the S&P 500 index lost 8.02 points to 2,365.45 and the Nasdaq composite index pulled back 18.96 points to 5,856.82.
In other commodities, the April gold contract fell US50¢ at US$1,202.60 an ounce, May copper was up US1¢ to US$2.64 a pound and April natural gas slipped US11¢ at US$2.94 per mmBTU.