By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Nov 17 – The Canadian dollar eased relative to the US dollar on Friday, reacting to news that Japan seems to be falling back into a recession, analysts said.
Japanese data showed the country’s economy slowed at a pace of 1.6 per cent due to a sales tax hike reducing housing and business investments, according to a report.
At 11:50 CST Monday, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.8849 or US$1=C$1.1301, which compares with Friday’s North American settlement of US$0.8868 or US$1=C$1.1277.
Weakness in crude oil values, due to large supplies of the commodity, also spilled over to weigh on the Canadian currency on Monday.
In Canadian economic news, foreign investment in Canadian securities slowed to C$4.4 billion in September, from C$10.3 billion in August, Statistics Canada data shows. Canadians acquired C$8.6 billion worth of foreign securities in September.
The Toronto Stock Exchange was up 63.46 points, or 0.43%, at 11:50 CST Monday, to sit at 14,906.56.
