The TSX accelerated its losses Wednesday afternoon, tumbling 116.55 points to end the day at 11,513.33, as the market digested recent economic commentary from the Federal Reserve chairman.

In his semiannual monetary policy report to the U.S. Congress Wednesday, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the Federal Reserve recognizes that the economic outlook “remains unusually uncertain.” He added that the Fed will continue to carefully assess ongoing financial and economic developments and “remain prepared to take further policy actions as needed”.

On the TSX, the metals and mining sector was one of the lone bright spots, climbing 1.5%, however, financials tumbled 1.9% and energy gave back 1.2% as the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that commercial crude inventories increased last week and crude oil slid $1.02 to $76.56 a barrel.

Meanwhile, gold for August delivery rose 10 cents to $1,191.80 an ounce and the TSX Venture added 2.47 points to end the day at 1,365.56.

In economic news, Statistics Canada said that wholesale sales fell 0.1% to $44.1 billion in May, as a result of a sharp decline in the agricultural supplies industry. In volume terms, wholesale sales were down 1.5% in May.

Elsewhere, shares of EnCana Corporation (TSX: T-ECA) fell 4.6% to $32.90 after the company reported its second quarter results, including a net loss of $505 million or 68 cents per share, resulting from unrealized after-tax losses on commodity hedging and non-operating foreign exchange of $340 million and $246 million, respectively. In the same quarter last year, the company reported net earnings of $92 million. Total production in the second quarter was approximately 3.3 billion cubic feet of gas equivalent per day, says EnCana.