The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that stocks finished lower on Wednesday, with the Canadian benchmark suffering its biggest decline since March 15, as investors took profits after Fitch cut the U.S. government's credit rating. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that Fitch downgraded the U.S. to AA+ from AAA late Tuesday, citing expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years as well as growing government debt. Fitch was the second major agency to cut the country's rating. In 2011, Standard & Poor's stripped the country of its triple-A grade. Reaction to the news pushed major indexes lower across the world, with the S&P 500 dropping 1.38 per cent, its biggest daily percentage drop since April 25. Still, several major brokerages said the downgrade was unlikely to result in a sustained drag on U.S. financial markets, noting the economy is now stronger than it was when S&P cut its rating in 2011. "Sometimes it's healthy to have this digestion in the market, as it brings down valuations a bit and it allows for dip-buying," said Quincy Krosby at LPL Financial in Charlotte, N.C. The S&P/TSX composite ended down 314.72 points at 20,218.21. All of Toronto's 10 sectors lost ground.