By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, April 9 The Canadian dollar was weaker relative to its US counterpart Thursday morning, reacting to general strength in the US dollar index, analysts said.
At 8:41 CDT Thursday, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7959 or US$=C$1.2564, which compares with Wednesday’s North American close of US$0.7976 or US$1=C$1.2538.
Ongoing worries about slow economic growth in Canada were also bearish. Statistics Canada said building permits were worth C$6.1 billion in February, a 0.9 per cent drop from January.
Though, a rebound in crude oil prices was supportive for the Canadian dollar, as was better than expected Canadian housing price data.
Canada’s new housing price index (NHPI) rose 0.2 per cent in February, from a 0.1 per cent drop in January, StatsCan said. Pre-report guesses called for a rise of only 0.1 per cent.
The TSX was up 24.76 points, or 0.16%, at 8:41 CDT Thursday morning to sit at 15,213.60.
