* China struck back on Wednesday against the Trump administration's plans to slap tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods with a list of similar duties on key US imports.
* Global equity and commodity markets dropped sharply, reflecting growing nervousness among investors about the prospect of a trade war that could hurt the global economy.
* Wall Street faltered, led by declines in industrials and automakers which took a hit from China's latest duties on 106 US goods.
* The financial sector, which accounts for more than a third of TSX's weight, was the leading decliner with the banks off 1.24 percent.
* The energy sector slipped 38 points as oil slumped to a two-week low.
* Suncor Energy and Canadian Natural Resources were down about 2 percent, making them the biggest drags on the energy sector.
* All of the TSX index's 10 main groups were in negative territory.
* At 9:39 a.m ET (1339 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 172.16 points, or 1.13 percent, to 15,008.6, its lowest level since February 9.
* The TSX posted no new 52-week highs and 11 new lows. Across all Canadian issues there were three new 52-week highs and 33 new lows.
* The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Eldorado Gold , which rose 9.7 percent, after an arbitration panel in Greece gave a positive ruling to build a metallurgy plant to process concentrate mined from Skouries and Olympias.
* The biggest decliner was First Quantum Minerals, down 4.5 percent.
* Among the most active Canadian stocks by volume were Neovasc Inc, Aurora Cannabis, and Wallbridge Min.
* Volume on the TSX index was 19.12 million shares, while the total volume on Wednesday was 34.85 million shares.