By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, May 15 – The Canadian dollar rose slightly against its US counterpart at midday Thursday, as a better-then-expected manufacturing report helped offset pressures elsewhere.
The loonie trended slightly upward after Statistics Canada reported manufacturing sales in March rose 0.4% to C$50.9 billion. This exceeded analyst’s expectations of a 0.1% rise.
Gains were limited though as new data shows the economic recovery in the European Union is proceeding at a sluggish pace. The EU’s chief statistics office said the economy of the countries that share the Euro grew by an anemic 0.2% in the first fiscal quarter.
On the commodity markets, the June crude oil contract fell 86 cents to US$101.51 a barrel, which was bearish.
June bullion dropped $10.30 to US$1,295.60 an ounce, which was also bearish.
At 11:45 CDT Thursday, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.9191 or US$1.0880, which compares with Wednesday’s North American close of US$0.9189, or US$=$1.0882.
At 11:45 CDT Thursday, the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 152.75 points to sit at 14,520.98.
