By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, February 27 – The Canadian dollar was slightly higher against its American counterpart at midday Friday, due to advances in crude oil prices and disappointing US economic data.
The loonie was at US$0.7995 or US$1 = C$1.2507 at 11:55 CST Friday morning.
US gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.2 percent during the last quarter, which was slightly weaker than analysts’ projections. The trade deficit and weaker business stockpiling were held up as reasons why by participants.
The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index also fell to a 5-and-a-half year low. It went from 59.4 in December to 45.8 in February.
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Crude oil prices settled down a bit this week due to large inventories in the US, which were at their highest levels in 80 years. The strong American dollar tempered the advances.
On the commodity markets the April crude contract in New York settled higher at US$49.05 a barrel. The April gold contract leaped US$5.70 to US$1,215.80 an ounce. The May copper contract dipped two cents to US$2.67 a pound.
At 11:55 CST Friday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was up 89.06 points to 15,330.22.
