A six-day streak of gains came to a halt on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday as the market absorbed expectations for an increasingly difficult economic environment ahead, and disappointing corporate news.

The S&P/TSX composite index plummeted 350.77 points, or 3.7%, to close at 9,121.32.

Energy companies led the slide, tumbling 6.1% after oil futures experienced their largest single-day percentage drop in seven years. Crude for February delivery tumbled US$5.95, or 12.2%, to close at US$42.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after reports that inventory levels had jumped.

Shares of Suncor Energy Inc. dropped 6.4% to $27.17 and EnCana Corp. saw its stock fall 5% to $57.80.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. tumbled $4.67, or 8.3%, to end at $51.32.

Shares of Nexen Inc. dropped a severe 8.9% to $21.21.

The materials group took a 5.7% hit of its own after gold futures continued to slide. Gold for February delivery fell US$24.30, or 2.8%, to US$841.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The sub-gold index dropped 7.3%.

Barrick Gold Corp. shares tumbled 6.2% to $37.34 and Goldcorp Inc. shares dropped 6.1% to $33.00.

Also lower was Kinross Gold Corp.’s stock, down 6.8% to $20.28, and Yamana Gold Inc., down 10.8% to $8.01.

Teck Cominco Ltd.’s B-class shares fell 7.2% to $7.60.

The financials group dipped 2.5% on Wednesday.

Manulife Financial Corp.’s shares fell 5.3% to $22.83 after news reports that the company is being probed by U.S. officials over accounting practices in a collapsed tax shelter.

Royal Bank of Canada fell $0.94, or 2.5%, to $37.10 and Bank of Montreal dipped 2.2% to $33.91.

Sun Life Financial shares declined 2.6% to $29.17 and Toronto-Dominion Bank was down 2.2% to $45.56.

Airline stocks saw activity after the two biggest carriers posted growth in traffic numbers for December despite economic hurdles and weather-related challenges.

Shares of WestJet rose 2% to $13.00 after the company reported a record load factor of 80.9% for December, up 1.6 percentage points from 79.3% last year.

Air Canada shares tumbled 7% to $1.72 after it reported a load factor of 81.7%, up 2.9 percentage points from the same month a year earlier, but a 9.9% drop in capacity that pushed system traffic down by 6.6%.

Reitmans (Canada) Ltd. saw its shares fall 3.4% to $10.34 after it reported that same-store sales decreased by 4.5% in December.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index dipped 24.79 points, or 2.7%, to close at 888.32.

The Canadian dollar fell a cent against the greenback, to close at US83.54¢.

In New York, equities experienced similar declines as economic concerns prevailed.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 245.4 points, or 2.7%, to 8,769.

The S&P 500 index dropped 28.05 points, or 3%, to 906.65, and the Nasdaq composite dipped 53.32 points, or 3.2%, to 1,608.62.

IE