The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that Canada's benchmark stock index closed down 1.8 per cent on Monday to its lowest in almost a year in a sell-off that far outpaced Wall Street. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that by contrast, the S&P 500 ended flat, though utilities fell sharply. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields hit 16-year highs, as an agreement to avert a partial government shutdown reduced demand for the debt before key jobs data due later this week. The agreement takes away the risk that the release of government data will be delayed, which would have been likely to keep the Federal Reserve on the sidelines. "U.S. Treasury yields continue to march higher and that's just crushing the dividend-paying stocks like utilities in Canada," said Douglas Porter, chief economist of BMO Capital Markets. Dividend stocks are particularly vulnerable to higher yields as they are relatively less attractive when safer securities such as money market funds are sporting higher interest rate payouts. Meanwhile, higher yields also drive up the U.S. dollar, which in turn puts pressure on commodities that are priced in greenbacks. The S&P/TSX Composite Index was down 364.09 points at 19,177.18.