By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Oct 8 – The Canadian dollar eased against the US dollar at 11:48 CDT Wednesday, undermined by weakness in commodity prices, including crude oil, gold and copper, analysts said.
At 11:48 CDT Wednesday, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.8935, or US$1=C$1.1192, which compares with Tuesday’s North American close of US$0.8952 or US$1=C$1.1171.
Traders were also shedding riskier assets because of global economic concerns related to recent disappointing economic data out of Asia and Europe.
Canadian building permits were in line with expectations, and had little impact on Canadian dollar. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said housing starts came in at an annualized pace of 197,343 units for September, while expectations called for 198,000 units.
Activity was on the quiet side, as the market was waiting for the minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s September policy meeting later Wednesday afternoon.
Market players were also looking ahead to Friday morning’s Statistics Canada employment data release.
The Toronto Stock Exchange was down 110.07 points, or 0.76%, at 11:48 CDT Wednesday, to sit at 14,466.38.
