The continuing rout on China’s main market prompted a worldwide sell-off Monday that sent North American markets into a tailspin in early trading before recovering somewhat by the end of the day.
The market’s benchmark S&P/TSX index plunged 768 points or 5.7% in early trading, then rallied strongly before sliding again.
Canada’s main index finished the day at 13,052.74 points—down 420.93 points from Friday’s close.
Read: 3 ETF reads for a Black Monday
The loonie fell 0.54 of a U.S. cent at $75.40.
It was the same story in New York, where the Dow Jones industrial average lost a breathtaking 1,000 points shortly after the open before regaining much of that ground, then faltering again to close down 588.47 points at 15,871.28.
The S&P 500 index was down 77.68 points at 1,893.21 and the Nasdaq dropped 179.79 points to 4,526.25.
Read: Why investors are selling stocks
On commodity markets, the October contract for benchmark crude oil was down $2.21 at US$38.24 a barrel, while September natural gas was off three cents at US$2.65 per thousand cubic feet.
December gold was down $6.00 at US$1,153.60 an ounce and September copper fell five cents to US$2.26 a pound.
Read: Chinese stocks suffer biggest drop in eight years
China’s largest stock market, which closes hours before the North American trading day begins, experienced its biggest one-day drop in eight years.
China’s Shanghai composite index fell 8.5% to close at 3,209.91 points, its biggest one-day loss since an 8.8% decline on Feb. 27, 2007. The index is down 38% from its June 12 peak, reached after a strong gain early in the year.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 4.6%, its worst one-day drop since in over two and a half years. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 5.2%, Australia’s S&P ASX/200 slid 4.1% and South Korea’s Kospi lost 2.5%.
That had a major spillover effect in Europe, where Germany’s DAX fell 5%, the CAC 40 in France slid 5.6% and Britain’s FTSE 100 dropped 4.5%.