By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, March 9 – The Canadian dollar was higher against its American counterpart Monday morning, as rising commodities offset a weaker-than-expected housing report.
At 8:45 CST Monday morning, the loonie was up 0.0016 of a cent to US$0.7941 or US$1 = C$1.2593. February housing starts were pegged at an annualized rate of 156,276 units. That compares to 187,025 units in January.
On Friday, Statistics Canada is expected to release job data for February. It’s expected the agency will announce the country lost 5,000 jobs during the month.
Loblaw Cos Ltd has announced plans to invest C$1.2 billion into its Canadian business in 2015. That is expected to create more than 20,000 jobs.
On the commodity markets the April crude contract in New York gained US$0.20 to US$49.81 a barrel. May copper rose two cents to US$2.63 a pound while the April gold contract rose $8.90 to US$1,173.20 an ounce.
At 8:45 CST Monday morning, the TSX was down 150.61 points to 14,952.50.
