By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, January 9 – The Canadian dollar was slightly lower against its American counterpart at midday Friday, due to disappointing job numbers and housing data, traders said.
The loonie was at US$0.8433 or US$1 = C$1.1858 at 11:35 CST Friday morning.
Housing starts in December came at an annualized pace of 180,560 which is down from November’s totals of 193,1999. 4,300 jobs were lost in December, even though forecasts had called for more to be created.
German industrial production faded in November by 0.1 percent while China’s consumer inflation edged up in December.
On the commodity markets the February crude contract in New York stood at US$48.60 a barrel. March copper was down two cents at US$2.75 a pound while the February gold contract rose 8.10 to US$1,216.60 an ounce.
At 11:35 CST Friday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 70.15 points to 14,387.45.
