(RTTNews) - Bay Street stocks remain in negative territory Thursday afternoon and could be destined for their third straight negative close. Financials have continued to decline, dragging the market lower.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index has dropped 79.04 points or 0.9% to 8,658.85. Toronto’s main index is on pace for its lowest close in nine days.

The Financial Index is down another 2.6%, extending its recent slump. Toronto-Dominion (TD.TO) has dropped 4.2%, Royal Bank (RY.TO) has slipped 2% and CIBC (CM.TO) is down 2%.

Canaccord Capital (CCI.TO) is down 5.8% after the company reported a third-quarter net loss of C$62.4 million or C$1.27 per share, compared to net income of C$15.0 million or C$0.31 per share in the same quarter last year. Excluding items, the company reported a third-quarter net loss of C$16.2 million or C$0.33 per share.

Manulife Financial (MFC.TO) has lost 4.75% after the company reported a fourth-quarter loss of C$1.24 per share, compared to a profit of C$0.75 a year ago.

Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO) has declined 3.5% after the company reported fourth quarter net income of C$129 million, compared to net income of C$555 million in the same period last year. Earnings per share for the quarter were C$0.23, compared to C$0.97 in the fourth quarter of 2007, a decrease of C$0.74.

Energy stocks are down 1.2%, as crude oil has continued to tumble. Light sweet crude for March closed at $33.98, down $1.96 for the session.

Nexen (NXY.TO) is down 2.6% after the company announced a fourth-quarter net loss of C$181 million or C$0.35 per share, compared to profit of C$194 million or C$0.37 per share in the previous year quarter.

EnCana (ECA.TO) has slid 1.6% after company announced its net earnings for the fourth quarter were flat at US$1.08 billion, or US$1.43 per share.

In other corporate news, CV Technologies (CVQ.TO) is down 7.2% after the company announced first-quarter net earnings of C$2.8 million or C$0.03 per share, compared to C$6.8 million or C$0.06 per share last year.

Canadian Tire (CTC.TO) has lost 2.7% after the company posted fourth quarter net earnings of C$101.2 million or C$1.24 per share, down from C$131.3 million or C$1.61 per share in the previous year quarter.

Great-West Lifeco (GWO.TO) has lost 3.5% after the company reported a net loss for the fourth quarter of C$907 million or C$1.009 per share, compared to net income of C$537 million or C$0.597 per share in the previous year quarter.

On the economic front, the U.S. Labor Department revealed Thursday that initial jobless claims came in at 623,000 for the week ended February 7, down 8,000 from the previous week’s revised total.

A Commerce Department report showed that retail sales rose 1.0 percent in January following a revised 3.0 percent decrease in December. Economists had expected sales to fall by 0.8 percent compared to the 2.7 percent decrease originally reported for the previous month.

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Posted in Categories: Canada, Releases, Stocks, USA.

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