The Toronto Stock Exchange slid more than 300 points Monday as investors pulled back on fears about the strength of the global economic recovery.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed at 10,532, a 317-point drop from its Friday close.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday as markets moved in lockstep, shedding value on worries that U.S. consumer spending has yet to recover. (Seth Wenig/Associated Press)

The weakness was widespread, with mining, materials, industrials, energy and financial stocks leading the decline. Every one of the sub-indices of the TSX ended the day lower.

Influential decliners included Potash Corp. (down $4.79 to $100.71); Research in Motion (down $2.19 to $78.10); CIBC (down $1.76 to $65.99); and CP Rail (down $2.90 to $50.10).

The energy group fell 3.3 per cent as the September crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange lost 76 cents US to $66.75 a barrel.

"If the global economic recovery isn't going to be as robust, then we are going to see weakness in oils," said Ross Healy, CEO of Strategic Analysis Corp.

Toronto's losses mirrored similar swoons in markets around the globe. In New York, the Nasdaq slumped 55 points to 1931. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 186 points at 9,135.

It was the biggest one-day percentage loss for U.S. markets in seven weeks.

Markets were reacting to continuing worries about anemic U.S. consumer spending. The big home improvement chain, Lowe's, saw its shares drop more than 10 per cent as it released a disappointing outlook.

News out of Japan that the recession there is technically over also failed to spur markets higher, as the first-quarter expansion came in shy of economists' expectations.

Earlier, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed at 20,137.07, down 756.26 or 3.62 per cent. Shanghai's stock exchange fell more than six per cent.

With files from The Associated Press