TSX down, loonie up in wake of interest rate hike

North American markets fell hard as Canada's main stock index again posted its worst day in more than three years.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 2.5 per cent or 376.04 points to 14,909.13.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 608.01 points to 24,583.42. The S&P 500 index lost 84.59 points to 2,656.10, while the Nasdaq composite shed 4.4 per cent or 329.14 points to 7,108.40.

The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 76.75 cents US compared with an average of 76.35 cents US on Tuesday in the wake of the Bank of Canada's decision to raise its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 1.75 per cent.

The December crude contract was up 39 cents at US$66.82 per barrel and the December natural gas contract was down 5.6 cents at US$3.23 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down US$5.70 at US$1,231.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was essentially unchanged at US$2.76 a pound.

High-flying companies like Netflix and Amazon took some of the biggest losses Wednesday. Netflix gave back 9.4 per cent and Amazon dropped 5.9 per cent.

With files from Associated Press.