The markets today

Canada’s main stock index ended a losing week by hitting a near two-year low while the Dow industrials average and S&P 500 index wiped out their gains for the year.

The Toronto Stock Exchange has taken a beating, presenting great buying opportunities, says Patrick Blais, senior portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management. “The real story I think is the underperformance of Canada for a number of years. I think it just speaks to a reliance on financials and energy and materials,” he said in an interview.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 35.82 points to 14,888.26. It’s the lowest level since Nov. 18, 2016.

The market hit an intraday low of 14.732.03 as 269 million shares were traded.

The cannabis-heavy health care sector, telecom and technology led on the downside for the day, while materials and gold gained the most.

October is living up to its reputation as being a challenging month.

With just three trading days remaining in the month, the Toronto exchange is down 7.4 per cent, while the Nasdaq is down 10.9 per cent.

The S&P 500 is down 8.8 per cent and the Dow industrials are off 6.7 per cent.

Positive results Thursday provided a false sense of hope about a turnaround, Blais said. Once Amazon and Google reported weaker than expected results, it was obvious the day was going to be a challenge. Corporate results this quarter haven’t been bad, but they highlighted the reluctance of businesses to invest, which points to potential economic problems to come.

It could be only a matter of time before consumers start to feel the pressure with fewer employment opportunities and chances to extract wage gains.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 296.24 points to 24,688.31.

The S&P 500 index was down 46.88 points to 2,658.69 points, while the Nasdaq composite was down 151.12 points to 7,167.21. The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 76.29 cents US compared with an average of 76.48 cents US on Thursday.

The December crude contract was up 26 cents at US$67.59 per barrel and the December natural gas contract was down 3.1 cents at US$3.22 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was up US$3.40 at US$1,235.8 an ounce and the December copper contract was down 1.35 cents at US$2.74 a pound.