By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, March 30 – The Canadian dollar was lower against its American counterpart at midday Monday, as the possibility of a deal between Iran and Western nations began to emerge.
The loonie was at US$0.7878 or US$1 = C$1.2693 at 11:35 CDT Monday morning. Oil prices fell as speculation swirled that Iran could see the sanctions against it lowered in exchange for stronger controls over its nuclear program.
Tehran is eager to recover markets lost to the sanctions that saw its crude exports curtailed from 2.5 million barrels per day to just 1 million.
The Bank of Canada says the slump in oil prices is having an “atrocious” effect on the Canadian economy.
On the commodity markets the April crude contract in New York fell 0.69 to US$48.18 a barrel. The April gold contract dipped US$15.70 to US$1,184.10 an ounce.
At 11:35 Monday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was up 148.98 points to 14,961.40.
