By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, January 19 – The Canadian dollar was little changed against its American counterpart Monday morning, as investors waited to hear an announcement on interest rates from the Bank of Canada on Wednesday.
At 8:50 CST Monday morning, the loonie was down 0.0007 of a cent to US$0.8444 or US$1 = C$1.1843. Oil prices were under pressure early Monday morning after JPMorgan Chase slashed its oil price forecast for 2015. It predicted that Brent crude will average out at US$49 a barrel, a sharply lower outlook from its original prediction of $82 a barrel.
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Copper prices were also down. Values dipped just a day before figures on the American economy are released. It’s widely expected the data will show the economy slowed down in the recent quarter.
Analysts expect the European Central Bank will announce a major program of quantitative easing later this week. The initiative would involve the buying of government bonds to support the economic recovery in the eurozone.
On the commodity markets the February crude contract in New York lifted $0.46 to US$48.67 a barrel. March copper was down five cents at US$2.57 a pound while the February gold contract rose 1.50 to US$1,278.40 an ounce.
At 8:50 CST Monday morning, the TSX was up 10.73 points to 14,320.14.
