Europe fears cause steep TSX loss

The Toronto stock market racked up a steep, triple- digit l oss Wednesday after a weak bond auction in Spain caused fears about Europe’s debt problems to flare up again.

Stocks were also under pressure for a second day after the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated further economic stimulus isn’t in the cards. The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 144.95 points to 12,178.66 on top of a 184-point plunge Tuesday, led by sliding resource stocks as prices for oil, copper and gold registered steep declines.

The TSX Venture Exchange fell 46.49 points to 1,499.14.

The commodity-sensitive Canadian dollar fell 0.61 of a cent (U.S.) to 100.36 cents.

The Dow Jones industrials fell 124.8 points to 13,074.75.

The Nasdaq composite index lost 45.48 points to 3,068.09 while the S&P 500 index dropped 14.42 points to 1,398.96.

Markets also fell as Fed policymakers said they were worried that recent strong gains in hiring could fizzle if U.S. economic growth doesn’t pick up. Markets seemed unaffected by a report showing that the U.S. private sector created 209,000 jobs in March. The data from payrolls processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. was close to analysts’ expectations. The gold sector lost about 3.5 per cent as bullion prices fell heavily, down $57.90 to $1,614.10 an ounce. The May crude contact on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed down $2.54 to $101.47 a barrel, pushing the energy sector 2.75 per cent lower.