By MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, April 20 (MarketsFarm) – The Canadian dollar was slightly lower Monday morning, due to volatility in North American crude oil prices.
As of 8:39 CDT, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7102 or C$1.4828, compared to Friday’s close of US$0.7124 or C$1.4037.
Benchmark crude oil prices were weaker Monday morning, particularly West Texas Intermediate as storage space is running out. Reports stated the amount of oil at the main U.S. storage hub near Cushing, Oklahoma has jumped 48 per cent since the end of February to 55 million barrels. Cushing’s capacity was said to be 76 million barrels.
WTI fell US$6.76 at US$11.51 per barrel, its lowest point since 1999. Brent crude oil was down US$1.71 at US$26.37 per barrel, also contending with storage issues.
Western Canadian Select (WCS) suffered challenges overnight, including dipping into negative territory to minus US$0.64 per barrel, before rising to more than US$11. Since then, WCS dropped US$3.34 at US$7.78 per barrel.
The TSX/S&P Composite Index opened with a drop of 268.13 points at 14,091.75.
Gold was up US$7.98 at US$1,690.80 per ounce.
