By MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, July 19 (MarketsFarm) – The Canadian dollar was sharply weaker relative to its United States counterpart Monday morning as a number of factors combined to weigh on the currency.
At 8:59 a.m. CDT Monday morning, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7853 or US$1=C$1.2734 which compares with Friday’s North American close of US$0.7941 or US$1=C$1.2593.
An agreement was reached between OPEC, Russia and the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to increase oil production by 400,000 barrels per day. Oil prices fell as a result, which weighed on the energy-linked Canadian dollar.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil down 4.3 per cent at US$68.45 per barrel.
Rising concerns over the COVID-19 delta variant around the world had investors looking to safe havens, such as the U.S. dollar, at the expense of the riskier Canadian currency. Heightened tensions between China and the U.S. over accusations of a Chinese hack of Microsoft emails was another feature in the global economic uncertainty.
The TSX was weaker, down 295.51 points at 8:59 CDT, trading at 19,690.03 points.
