By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Sept 30 – The Canadian dollar was down sharply relative to the US dollar at 11:51 CDT Tuesday, reacting to disappointing Canadian gross domestic product (GDP) data, analysts said.
According to Statistics Canada, real GDP was basically unchanged in July, following six consecutive months of gains. Pre-report expectations called for GDP growth of 0.2 per cent in July.
At 11:51 CDT Tuesday, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.8923, or US$1=C$1.1207, which compares with Monday’s North American close of US$0.8966 or US$1=C$1.1153.
Ongoing ideas that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates before the Bank of Canada does put further downward pressure on the Canadian currency.
Spillover pressure from the declines in commodity prices, including crude oil, gold and copper, was also bearish.
Traders were looking ahead to Friday, when the latest US job figures will be released. Pre-report expectations call for 210,000 newly created US jobs in September, traders say.
The Toronto Stock Exchange was up 20.42 points, or 0.14%, at 11:51 CDT Tuesday, to sit at 14,997.34.
