The Toronto stock market ended its fourday climb on Monday as traders reined in their enthusiasm and commodity prices shifted lower.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended the day 52.61 points lower to 12,446.86 while the TSX Venture Exchange inched down 0.95 of a point to 1,317.16.
The Canadian dollar backed off 0.43 of a cent to US102.53.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrials were down 40.27 points to 13,553.10, the Nasdaq composite index backed off 5.28 points to 3,178.67, while the S&P 500 index slid 4.58 points to 1,461.19.
"We've had such a big move in such a short period of time ... so I'd say a little bit of profit taking is to be expected," said Ian Nakamoto, director of research at MacDougall, MacDougall and MacTier.
Traders lowered their enthusiasm over the U.S. Federal Reserve's plan for new measures to energize the economy, while attention turned to weakness in Asian markets, and a move from Hong Kong to tighten mortgage lending - an effort to help slow the rise of home prices.
The Canadian Real Estate Association cut its forecast for home sales this year and next and lowered its national average price forecast, partly due to last month's revised mortgage lending regulations.
CREA's forecast Monday said home sales will rise by 1.9% to 466,900 units in 2012, but slip by 1.9% to 457,800 units in 2013. The national average home price is forecast to rise by just 0.6% to $365,000 in 2012 and edge lower by one-tenth of 1% to $364,500 in 2013.
Shares of Rona Inc. were down 11.6% after Lowe Companies pulled its takeover offer for the company. The offer would have seen the home-improvement retailer acquired for about $1.8 billion. Rona shares backed off $1.48 to $11.29.
TSX technology stocks were 1.1% lower with Research In Motion shares falling 3.7%, or 27¢, to $7.07. The decline came as Apple says iPhone 5 pre-orders topped two million in 24 hours.
In commodities, the October crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $2.38, ending the session at US$96.62. Copper prices for December were down 3.5¢ to US$3.80 a pound. Gold closed down $2.10 at US$1,770.60 an ounce.
Metals and mining stocks were the biggest decliner, off 3.8%, with Teck Resources falling $1.24 to $31.78.
The telecom sector dopped 0.04% as the chief executive of Rogers Communications predicted wirelessly connected hydro meters and other devices will be a big source of revenue in the near future, and could grow to more than $400 million of annual revenue for the industry by 2015.
