P.M. market numbers: October 23, 2009

| North American markets | International markets | Bonds | Currency | Commodities |

The Toronto stock market finished sharply lower Friday in a broad-based decline involving all sectors and led by falling tech and energy shares.

The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 151.24 points to 11,382.13, losing 122.63 points or 1.06% this week.

There was no particular reason for the negative investor sentiment, which also drove New York indexes lower; investors took in solid earnings reports from Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com.

Linda Duessel, equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York, didn’t see a cause for worry in the downturn, saying the market needed to pause after the massive surge it has made since early March.

The S&P/TSX composite index is up about 50% while the S&P 500 index is up about 60% from the lows of early March.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.37 of a cent to 95.07 cents US, a day after Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney said the sharply higher currency is putting a brake on the country’s economy recovery.

And he made it clear that ”intervention is always an option” to control the rise of the loonie, which came within about 2.5 cents of regaining parity with the U.S. dollar a week ago.

The TSX energy sector slipped 2% as the December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 69 cents to US$80.50 a barrel. Crude prices had shot up more than three per cent earlier this week to a one-year high on optimism an economic recovery is taking root.

TSX mining stocks were down slightly as the December copper contract in New York rose 3.6 cents to US$3.03 a pound while December bullion was off $2.20 at US$1,056.40 an ounce.

The tech laden Nasdaq ended the session down 10.82 points to 2,154.47.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 109.13 points to 9,972.18 for a loss of 23.73 points this week.

The S&P 500 index gave back 13.31 points to 1,079.6.

(THE CANADIAN PRESS)

North American markets

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	Close	Change	YTD
Dow Jones	9,972.18	-109.13 or -1.08%	+13.63%
S&P 500	1,079.60	-13.31 or -1.22%	+19.52%
NASDAQ	2,154.47	-10.82 or -0.50%	+36.32%
TSX Composite	11,382.13	-151.24 or -1.31%	+26.64%

International markets

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	Close	Change	YTD
Nikkei	10,282.99	+15.82% or +0.15%	+16.07%
Hang Seng	22,589.73	+379.21 or +1.71%	+57.01%
SENSEX	16,810.81	+21.070% or + 0.125%	+74.25%
FTSE 100	5,242.57	+35.21 or +60.68%	+18.23%
CAC 40	3,808.24	-12.61 or -0.33%	+18.34%
DAX	5,740.25	-22.68 or -0.39%	+19.33%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	102.13	102.44	3.49
Cdn. 30-year bond	117.38	117.80	3.96
U.S. 10-year bond	101.09	101.75	3.49
U.S. 30-year bond	103.50	104.50	4.29

Currency

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BoC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.9501	0.9543
US $	1.0519	1.0478

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6340	0.6351
Euro	1.5774	1.5746

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$1061.75	$1061.75

Oil	Close	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$79.61	-$1.58 or -1.95%

(10/23/09)