TSX DECLINES AS HEAVYWEIGHTS MISS

North American markets, already in negative territory Tuesday, fell further after minutes of the last U.S. Federal Reserve Open Market Committee were released, showing central bankers think the U.S. economy will get along fine without any further monetary stimulus.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index closed at 12,323.61, a drop of 183.44 points, or 1.47%. .

Nine of the S&P/TSX’S 10 subindexes fell. Materials led the decliners, falling 3.12%, followed by technology, down 2.05%. Energy dipped 1.32% and financials lost 1.24%.

A US$7.70 drop in the price of gold, to US$1,672.00 an ounce, accounted for some of the decline in the materials subindex, as did a dip in the share price of

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN/TSX), which fell 7.88% to $14.37 after both TorontoDominion and Bank of Montreal downgraded its stocks over concerns about rising development costs.

Energy issues lost ground after the price of crude oil fell US$1.22 to US$104.01 a barrel. In the technology sector, Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM/ TSX) was responsible for the lion’s share of the losses, after it was accused Tuesday of infringing a Dutch semiconductor company’s patents. Investors were also speculating that, despite comments from CEO Thorsten Heins last week that it was open to forming partnerships, there were few companies out there that would be willing to take RIM on.