By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Oct 27 – The Canadian dollar eased relative to the US dollar at midday Monday, as traders were squaring positions ahead of Wednesday’s US Federal Reserve interest rate announcement, analysts said.
At 11:47 CDT Monday, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.8894, or US$1=C$1.1244, which compares with Friday’s North American close of US$0.8902 or US$1=C$1.1233.
Weakness in commodity prices, including crude oil and gold, were responsible for some of the Canadian currency’s downward price slide.
Disappointing economic news out of Germany was also bearish. The Ifo institute released their latest confidence index, which dropped to 103.2 points in October, from 104.7 last month.
There was no significant Canadian economic data released on Monday. Traders were looking ahead to gross domestic product data that will be released by Statistics Canada on Friday.
The Toronto Stock Exchange was down 71.61 points, or 0.49%, at 11:47 CDT Monday, to sit at 14,472.21.
