Markets in red, loonie up

Photo: The Canadian Press

The Toronto Stock Exchange Broadcast Centre is shown in Toronto on Friday June 28, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim

Canada's main stock index posted a triple-digit decline in late-morning trading as the Toronto market was hit by broad-based weakness and U.S. markets sank into the red.

The S&P/TSX composite index was down 124.22 points at 15,579.14.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 266.10 points at 24,903.43. The S&P 500 index was down 21.75 points at 2,684.30, while the Nasdaq composite was down 45.99 points at 7,242.36.

The Canadian dollar traded for 75.32 cents US compared with an average of 75.27 cents US on Thursday after Statistics Canada said the economy added 66,800 jobs in January.

The March crude contract was up seven cents at US$52.71 per barrel and the March natural gas contract was up 2.6 cents at US$2.58 per mmBTU.

The April gold contract was up US$3.60 at US$1,317.80 an ounce and the March copper contract was down 1.45 cents at US$2.81 a pound.