By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, January 28 – The Canadian dollar was lower against its American counterpart at midday Wednesday, due to weak oil prices and revised employment data which showed the country lost more jobs in December than initially reported.
The loonie was at US$0.8029 or US$1 = C$1.1245 at 11:45 CST Wednesday morning.
Jobs data initially showed a loss of 4,300 Canadian jobs in December. However, new numbers suggest it was actually 11,300 jobs that were slashed across the country, bumping up the national unemployment rate for the month from 6.6 percent to 6.7 percent.
Oilsands company Cenovus also announced on Wednesday it was slashing its 2015 budget by C$700 million as a result of falling oil prices.
On the commodity markets the March crude contract in New York was down US$1.21 at US$45.02 a barrel. The February gold contract dipped US$5.30 to US$1,286.40 an ounce.
At 11:45 CST Wednesday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 71.73 points to 14,762.15.
