North American markets fall, TSX has triple-digit decline

Luciano Orengo, portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management, said there will be more headwinds for the Toronto market as the supply of oil shows no signs of dropping even as soft global growth tamps down demand.

The S&P/TSX composite index was down 64.10 points at 14,213.78 at mid-afternoon as the Toronto market has now declined in four of its last five sessions.

Materials, home to gold-mining companies, was the lone gaining sector, propped up by higher prices for the safe-haven precious metal.

The Dow Jones industrial futures were down 84 points at 17,398.0, the Nasdaq futures declined 11.7 points to 4,532.3, and the S&P 500 futures fell 6.7 points to 2,087.2.

Cisco shares fell 1.5 per cent to $28.58 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to “equal-weight” from “overweight”.

Cieszynski said that the day-to-day volatility in the Chinese stock market is only a concern for Canadian investors if it heralds a slowdown in China’s economy and its voracious appetite for resources.

Earlier, the Shanghai market in China dropped more than six per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.43 per cent on Tuesday, raising concerns about the strength of the world’s second-largest economy.

In commodities, the September crude contract was down $1.97 at US$41.15 a barrel following an unexpected increase in U.S. crude inventories, while September natural gas edged up one cent to US$2.71 per thousand cubic feet and copper lost a penny to US$2.27 a pound.

The loonie traded at 76.39 cents US, down 0.03 of a U.S. cent from Monday’s close.