North American stock markets plunge on selloff of technology sector

TORONTO – North American stock markets plunged Thursday, spurred on by a selloff in the overheated technology sector and concerns about the pace of economic recovery.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 249.07 points at 16,448.90.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 807.77 points at 28,292.73. The S&P 500 index was down 125.78 points at 3,455.06, while the Nasdaq composite was down 598.34 points or nearly five per cent at 11,458.10.

The Canadian dollar traded for 76.20 cents US compared with 76.53 cents US on Wednesday.

The October crude contract was down 14 cents at US$41.37 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down one-tenth of a cent at nearly US$2.49 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down US$6.90 at US$1,937.80 an ounce and the December copper contract was down almost 4.6 cents at US$2.98 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version had an incorrect closing price for the Toronto Stock Exchange.