TORONTO -- North American markets suffered steep losses, with the Toronto Stock Exchange registering a triple-digit decline for a second consecutive day amid weak energy markets, a sell-off in China and the expectation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this fall.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 299.63 points at 13,737.00 in what was its fourth consecutive losing session and one that took Canada's leading index to lows not seen since mid-December.

Toronto's benchmark stock index hasn't closed below 14,000 since Dec. 17, when it ended the trading day at 13,861.52.

New York markets were also solidly in the red, with the Dow Jones industrial average plunging 358.04 points to 16,990.69, the Nasdaq giving back 141.56 points to close at 4,877.49 and the S&P 500 down 43.88 points at 2,035.73.

The sell-off came after the Shanghai composite index dropped 3.4 per cent on heavy selling of energy and property companies.

Gareth Watson, vice-president of investment management and research at Richardson GMP Ltd., said the broad-based decline may be tied partly to minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's July 28-29 meeting, out Wednesday, which hinted that the central bank may raise interest rates as early as September.

However, a number of other factors may also be at play, Watson said.

"Energy markets are obviously not helping," Watson said, noting that the price of oil is hovering just above US$40 a barrel, which is considered to be the level required for many Canadian oil producers to make a profit.

The October contract for benchmark closed at US$41.32 a barrel Thursday, up five cents from the previous day's close.

A number of sectors beyond the oil patch have also been hit, with only the global gold, materials and metals and mining sectors of the TSX registering gains on Thursday.

Health-care, a relatively small sector on the TSX in terms of its weighting, was the lead decliner, slipping nearly five per cent.

"This sell-off is pretty broadly based," Watson said, noting that banks, life insurance companies and even defensive stocks, such as pipeline companies and utilities, suffered losses.

The loonie, meanwhile, rose 0.17 of a U.S. cent to 76.45 cents US.

On the commodity markets, the October contract for benchmark oil was up five cents at US$41.32 a barrel, while September natural gas was four cents higher at US$2.76 per thousand cubic feet and September copper ended its recent slide, rising four cents to US$2.32 a pound. December gold soared $25.30 to US$1,153.20 an ounce.

In corporate news, Valeant Pharmaceuticals (TSX:VRX) is spending more than US$1 billion to acquire North Carolina-based Sprout Pharmaceuticals, the maker of a libido drug dubbed, if somewhat incorrectly, the female Viagra. Valeant stock was down $21.47 or 6.7 per cent at $298.75.