The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 150 points mid-morning Monday, pressured by weakness in the base metals sector, even as energy shares jumped more than 2%.
Base metals were the weaket performer mid-morning, falling 3.7%, as copper and precious metal commodity prices tumbled. Gold, silver and copper were all down over 2%.
Traders were expecting that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates when it meets this week. US 10-year bond yields also continued to climb, topping 5%.
The best performer was the energy sector, up 2.4% on last look. The sector was helped by surging oil prices that rallied more than 3%, as fighting in the Middle East intensified and Saudi Arabia shut a key pipeline.
The information technology sector dropped 0.6% after the chief executive officers of AI companies, Anthropic and OpenAI over the weekend called for a slowdown in AI investment, warning of significant risks to humanity.
In Canada, Statistics Canada reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3% in August, unchanged from July.