By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, March 4 – The Canadian dollar was lower against its American counterpart Wednesday morning, as investors waited to hear an announcement later this morning from the Bank of Canada. Most analysts believe the central bank will hold interest rates steady after cutting the rate by a quarter of a point in January.
At 8:50 CST Wednesday morning, the loonie was down 0.0026 of a cent to US$0.7980 or US$1 = C$1.2531.
The American private sector created 212,000 jobs last month which was slightly below previous projections.
New numbers also indicate the struggling Eurozone grew at a seven-month high in February. The composite purchasing managers’ index rose from 52.6 points in January to 53.3 in February.
On the commodity markets the April crude contract in New York rose US$0.44 to US$50.96 a barrel. May copper fell one cent to US$2.65 a pound while the April gold contract slipped $0.20 to US$1,204.20 an ounce.
At 8:50 CST Wednesday morning, the TSX was down 41.03 points to 15,092.82.
