By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, February 20 – The Canadian dollar was lower against its American counterpart at midday Friday, as growing inventories of US crude pressured oil prices.
The loonie was at US$0.7989 or US$1 = C$1.2513 at 11:55 CST Friday morning.
Despite the lower prices the Canadian Energy Research Institute says Canada’s oil output will still increase this year.
Investors were waiting to see if a compromise could be reached between Eurozone officials and the new Greek government. A recent request for a new wave of bridge financing was reportedly denied by Germany, which wants Greece to commit to repaying its debt.
On the commodity markets the March copper contract was unchanged at US$2.56 a pound. The March crude contract in New York was down US$0.20 at US$50.96 a barrel. The April gold contract dipped US$0.80 to US$1,207.20 an ounce.
At 11:55 CST Friday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 35.91 points to 15,144.42.
