North American stock markets tumbled Thursday on news of the White House's banking reform and worries about China putting the brakes on its red-hot economy.
U.S. exchanges were down almost 2 per cent at noon and the S&P/TSX in Toronto was off more than 1 per cent.
The Dow Jones industrial average shed 180.85 points to 10422.30, the broader S&P 500 lost 17 points to 1121 and the S&P/TSX gave up 147.45 to 11531.87.
Base materials and financial stocks led the selloff, with each of the subsectors down more than 3 per cent in the U.S.
Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase are off more than 5 per cent and are the two most active issues on the Dow. None of the stocks in the index advanced.
President Barack Obama introduced a reform proposal that would prohibit banks from running proprietary trading operations or investing in hedge funds and private equity funds.
At the same time, China posted GDP growth of 10.7 per cent in the fourth quarter, raising fears that it would tighten credit still further and even raise interest rates soon. Commodities prices fell on the news as did related stocks.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold tumbled 7 per cent, following the decline of oil and metal prices.
In Toronto, Teck Resources lost 4 per cent, Inmet Mining fell 12 per cent and HudBay Minerals lost 5 per cent.
The loonie fell for the third day in a row, losing 0.27 cents against the U.S. currency, trading last at 95.24 cents (U.S.).
Oil lost 30 cents at $77.44 a barrel and gold fell $18.70 an ounce to $1,093.90.