Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Men walks past a building in Toronto that used to house the Toronto Stock Exchange on August 18 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim

The Toronto stock market was negative shortly after markets opened, as commodity prices retreated amid some disappointing figures on the global economy.

The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 55.86 points to 12,380.30 while the TSX Venture Exchange slid 2.03 points to 1,341.49.

In the U.S., the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell only slightly last week, suggesting that the hiring level remains weak. Meanwhile, a survey pointed to a deepening recession in Europe, while figures from Japan showed the country's powerhouse export sector was continuing to suffer

The Dow Jones industrials declined 37.07 points to 13,540.89, the Nasdaq composite index fell 16.88 of a point to 3,165.74 and the S&P 500 index backed off 7.39 points to 1,453.66.

The price of crude extended its pullback with the October contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange down 19 cents to US$91.79 a barrel. Gold bullion fell $6.70 to US$1,765 an ounce.

The Canadian dollar fell 0.68 of a cent to 101.94 cents US.