By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, December 8 – The Canadian dollar slumped to its lower point in five and half years against its American counterpart midday Monday, on the back of oil prices which continued to plummet.
The loonie was at US$0.8590 or US$1 = C$1.1641 at 11:45 CST Monday morning.
The loonie was also weaker against the American greenback as investors wait to hear an interest rate announcement from the US Federal Reserve. That is scheduled for Wednesday.
Prices for crude oil have dropped more than 40 percent since mid-summer and show no signs of recovering.
The loonie isn’t alone though, the Russian ruble, Norwegian kroner and Indian rupee are also being buffeted by oil’s decline.
On the commodity markets, the February gold contract jumped US$5.80 to $1,216.70 an ounce. The January crude oil contract rose US$0.15 to US$57.96 a barrel. The March copper contract dropped five cents to US$2.89 a pound.
At 11:45 CST Monday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was up 46.28 points to 13,778.18.
