By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, September 29 – The Canadian dollar was slightly firmer against its US counterpart at midday Wednesday, due to the release of lukewarm American manufacturing data.
The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index came in at 56.6 on Wednesday. That is significantly weaker than the 58 reading analysts had forecast earlier. One trader said even though the index showed some growth had occurred, it was still disappointing overall.
Meantime, the US Labour Department is scheduled to release more job numbers on Friday. It is expected the department will say that 215,000 jobs added to the American private and public sectors in September.
Canada won’t release its jobs info until October 10.
The December copper contract was up two cents at US$3.02 a pound. The November crude oil contract climbed $1.66 to hit US$92.82 a barrel. December gold rose US$3.30 to $1,214.90 an ounce.
At 11:45 CDT Wednesday, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.8949 or US$1.1174, which compares with Tuesday’s North American close of US$0.8929, or US$=$1.1200.
At 11:45 CDT Wednesday, the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 58.54 points to sit at 14,901.97.
