Canada's dollar and its benchmark stock exchange both sagged Monday, each dragged lower by oil prices that keep sliding with no end in sight.

The S&P/TSXcomposite index closed down 119.91 points, as oil companies and other commodities sold off heavily.

The catalyst, again, was oil. The price of a barrel of benchmark North American crude oil lost almost $2 to settle at $46.46 US in the afternoon. That's a continuation of a multi-week theme, as oil has gone from $105 a barrel in the summer to less than half of that because of oversupply.

"I think we're going to see plenty more volatility in the coming days as pressure mounts on oil producers to scale back production before prices get dangerously low," said Craig Erlam, market analyst at Alpari.

"The speed has been breathtaking," said David Wolf, portfolio manager and co-manager of Fidelity Canadian Asset Allocation Fund.

"And I think one of the reasons that equity markets are struggling with this is because it is a bit reminiscent of what happened in late 2008, so the surrounding memories of that are an economy in freefall."

Oil market watchers are already expecting that, as Goldman Sachs slashed its forecast for price for this year and next. It said the benchmark New York rate would average $50.40 a barrel this year, far below its previous forecast of $83.75.

That was bad news for the loonie, which lost over two-thirds of a cent to close at 83.56.

But it wasn't just oil dragging the TSX lower, as mining companies and banks usually the bastion of Canadian stocks were also lower, in part because of fears of how exposed their books are to loans in the oil patch that may turn out badly.

Gold was a source of strength, up 3.5 per cent as the February bullion contractgained $10 to $1,226.10 US an ounce.

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Loonie sheds half a cent and TSX closes down 120 points as oil flirts with $46

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A collaboration between the U.S. Geological Service and West Virginia University has resulted in a better understanding of the chemicals that spilled into the Elk River in 2014, affecting the drinking water of 300,000 Charleston-area residents.

Scientists in the organizations examined river and tap samples at several locations impacted by the spill. The results, which were recently published in the journal Chemosphere, are the first to report concentrations for each of the two chemical forms of the primary spill component (4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or 4-MCHM) in water samples.

Kung Wang, Eberly Distinguished Professor in the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry at West Virginia University, and doctoral student Haresh Thakellapalli used a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer to establish the concentrations of the two distinct chemical forms in the spill sample. Their measurements of the low concentrations of the chemicals were a key contribution to the study.

Among the U.S. Geological Survey findings, some of which informed other recently published studies:

Knowing how to identify the unique properties and odors of the chemicals, researchers say, will inform other studies examining other potential impacts of the spill.

"This spill represented a huge challenge for all of the entities who responded to it, as the behavior of these specific components in water environments was largely unknown before the spill," said Bill Foreman, a U.S. Geological Survey research chemist and lead author of the study. "Researchers had little information on how the spilled chemicals moved through water, their stability or toxicity, or even how to measure them, as published information was either limited or non-existent."

The method used by the Geological Survey and WVU scientists to identify the chemicals was able to determine both chemical forms of 4-MCHM to concentrations less than 0.5 part-per-billion. Measurement at these low concentrations is critical to understanding 4-MCHM behavior in the environment and in drinking water systems, and because Crude MCHM, part of the spill material, has a low odor threshold that people can smell at less than 1 ppb.

Explore further: Public health adversely affected when federal officials overlooked inhalation risk during West Virginia chemical spill

More information: Foreman, W.T., Rose, D.L., Chambers, D.B., Crain, A.S., Murtagh, L.K., Thakellapalli, H., and Wang, K.K., 2014, "Determination of (4-Methylcyclohexyl) methanol isomers by heated purge-and-trap GC/MS in water samples from the 2014 Elk River, West Virginia, chemical spill:" Chemosphere, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2014.11.006.

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Research sheds new light on coal-cleaning chemicals found in the 2014 Elk River spill

LOSING an incredible 100kg between them has enabled a Hervey Bay couple to realise their dream - they are expecting their first child.

Derek Smith lost 30kg and Telaine Feeney lost 70kg by sticking to a low-carbohydrate and high-fat diet, eating bacon, eggs and cream but shunning carbohydrate-loaded breads and sugar.

Their efforts to drop the kilos have had many fantastic benefits for the couple - but number one in their book was Telaine falling pregnant with their first child.

>Girl, 2, fighting for life after near-drowning in dam

>Taxis used to transport blood between Hervey Bay and M'boro

The two had been trying for years before losing the weight when they started the diet in 2013, and had almost decided to try IVF until the weight loss helped them conceive their much-wanted child.

When asked if they were excited, Derek had only one word to say: "Absolutely."

"It's pretty phenomenal," he said.

Telaine has also achieved another important health benefit through her weight loss.

Her blood sugar level often registered at over 30.

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Hervey Bay couple sheds 100kg to realise their dream

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Andy Murray is in Perth preparing for this month's Australian Open Getty Images

Andy Murray has shed light on the tensions that were behind the departure of two key members of his coaching team last year.

The British No.1 parted ways with hitting partner Dani Vallverdu and fitness coach Jez Green in November, citing the need for change ahead of his off-season training schedule.

However, speaking to the Independent, Murray has revealed more on the decision to let go of the two long-standing team-members, saying that he needed his coaching staff to rediscover a common goal.

"The most important point in any team is that everyone has the same vision, everyone wants to move forward together," Murray said. "I feel that's what I have now. Maybe the last four or five months of last year it wasn't like that. It's not as much fun travelling when that's the case. If everyone isn't right into it, that isn't how you want to work."

Signs of disquiet in the Murray camp first surfaced at Wimbledon last summer after the appointment of head coach Amelie Mauresmo, with Vallverdu and Green apparently unhappy at not being fully informed of the news beforehand.

Parting company with Vallverdu was particularly difficult, given their close friendship since meeting as youngsters at the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Spain more than a decade ago.

"He was the coach responsible for my training and all my practices at all of the tournaments," Murray said. "Maybe it didn't go as well as either of us would have liked and that's why I felt like I needed someone else. For him to get the opportunity to work with someone like [Tomas] Berdych is fantastic. He's obviously a top player and it will be a good challenge for him."

Murray, who is in Perth preparing for this month's Australian Open, also revealed he has started working regularly with a sports psychologist, although he was undecided as to whether they would become a full-time member of his new staff.

"I've been working with someone for a number of months now," he said. "I don't know if I feel like I need to travel with [a psychologist], but it's not something I'm closed-minded about."

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Murray sheds light on Vallverdu and Green departures

U.S. stocks dropped sharply on Friday, pulling benchmarks back into the red for the year, as the December jobs report topped expectations but hourly earnings declined and investors tracked events in France after the massacre at Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.

"It was a really positive jobs report. I know the market sold off here in an aftermath reaction, but we just had an incredible rally, it's a Friday, we have the situation in Paris, we're setting up for the upcoming weekend and we have earnings starting next week," JJ Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade, said of investor unease.

"And then there's the crude-oil situation, until you see three weeks of stability in crude, it's going to spell volatility in the market," Kinahan added.

The CBOE Volatility Index, a measure of investor uncertainty, rose 7.4 percent to 18.27.

"It's been such a volatile week, people shouldn't read too much into one-day moves," David Kelly, chief market strategist at JPMorgan Funds, said, referring to a week that has so far had the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing each day a triple-digit move in either direction.

The figures from the Labor Department had the U.S. economy adding 252,000 to payrolls last month, and the November already robust gain revised higher, to 353,000, prompting stock-index futures to reverse higher ahead of the open.

But the enthusiasm proved short lived.

"We had better-than-expected payrolls gains, a drop in unemployment, but we didn't see any wage growth," Kelly said.

Another economic report had wholesale inventories climbing 0.8 percent in November, above estimates

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Dow sheds 1 percent on wage drop, global uncertainty

By Dow Jones Business News, January 08, 2015, 10:55:00 PM EDT

WASHINGTON--The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's failure to examine J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s investment unit ahead of the bank's 2012 "London whale" trading debacle stemmed from turf battles with other regulators, overreliance on J.P. Morgan's solid reputation and financial-crisis-related distractions, according to the Fed's watchdog.

A full version of the Fed's Office of Inspector General's report on its investigation into the incident sheds additional light on how the New York Fed stumbled in its oversight of the bank's chief investment office, where the traders engaging in the problematic derivatives transactions were based.

The inspector general previously had released only a four-page summary of its report, which said the New York Fed failed to examine the investment office ahead of the trading debacle although a team of Fed experts had recommended a " full-scope examination" in August 2009.

The New York Fed team never carried that examination out. The Wall Street Journal obtained the full report through an open-records request, though passages were redacted.

The 77-page report sheds new light on tensions between the Fed and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversaw J.P. Morgan, as well as between Fed staff in Washington and New York.

In its response to the report, top Fed officials expressed some resistance to the inspector general's conclusions.

Michael Gibson, the Fed's director of banking supervision and regulation, pinned the "whale" failures on a lack of resources.

"The resource challenges faced by the Federal Reserve System and the FRBNY during this period cannot be underestimated," he said.

In light of that, the Fed believes it was "wholly appropriate...to rely on the assessments of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and JPM's internal audit department in lieu of conducting its own examination," he said.

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Fed IG Report Sheds Light on 'London Whale'

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Hackensack Councilwoman Rose Greenman and Zoning Officer Al Borrelli at a hearing in Hackensack on Thursday.

HACKENSACK City Councilwoman Rose Greenman claimed on Thursday that a zoning complaint against her that was dismissed in Municipal Court was an act of "retaliation" against her by the mayor and deputy mayor for her opposition to their agenda.

Mayor John Labrosse and Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino, when reached by phone separately on Thursday, fiercely rejected the accusation as "absolutely" false. They each said they had nothing to do with an attempt by zoning officials to inspect Greenman's residence.

Greenman's claim appears to point to continuing division on the council, which came into office in 2013 promising reform after decades of control by the Zisa political family.

On Thursday morning, Judge Roy F. McGeady, the presiding judge for the Bergen County municipal courts, dismissed a city citation that alleged Greenman denied a city inspector access to her apartment in a Prospect Avenue high-rise building where she lives. Inspectors reportedly were checking on a complaint that Greenman was operating her law office from her residence, an alleged violation of residential zoning.

Greenman said city Zoning Officer Al Borrelli had told her that Labrosse and Canestrino were pressuring him through Art Koster, who then was the interim city manager, to do the inspection.

Reached by phone on Thursday afternoon, Borrelli denied Greenman's account.

Borrelli said that after he received a request from Koster to inspect the residence, he mailed two notices, the first on Aug. 7 and the second on Aug. 15, but got no response. He issued the citation on Aug. 26.

Borrelli said after the hearing that Greenman faced a fine of as much as $1,250 for denying access and a fine of up to $2,000 had a zoning violation been found.

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Zoning complaint sheds light on council rift in Hackensack