TORONTO -- The Toronto stock market posted a triple-digit loss, unable to sustain last week's late rally as oil prices again faltered in the face of a global supply glut.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX index ended the day down 246.42 points at 12,143.16, after Canada's main market added almost 550 points on the final two days of trading last week.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 208.29 points to close at 15,885.22, while the broader S&P 500 fell 29.82 points to 1,877.08 and the Nasdaq lost 72.69 points to 4,518.49.

On commodity markets, the March contract for benchmark North American crude fell $1.85 to settle at US$30.34 a barrel, while March natural gas rose 1.4 cents to settle at US$2.155 per mmBtu and February gold added $9 to end at US$1,105.30 a troy ounce.

The commodity-sensitive Canadian dollar broke a three-day string of gains as it lost 0.59 of a U.S. cent to settle at 70.08 cents US.