By Commodity News Service Canada
Aug. 17 – The Canadian dollar fell from a two-week high earlier today, after reaching US$0.7944, or C$1.2588 in midday trading. By the market’s close, the loonie sat at US$0.7907 (C$1.2647), compared to Wednesday’s close of US$0.7875 or C$1.2699.
The U.S. dollar managed to hang onto gains made yesterday for part of the day, but then fell back on fears that U.S. President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser Gary Cohn was about to resign. The rumours have been denied by the White House and Cohn continued to serve at day’s end.
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The Trump factor also affected stocks in Canada’s main index, the S&P/TSX composite. It closed down 48.57 points (0.32%) at 15,033.64 on growing political unease over Trump’s leadership.
In the U.S., all major indexes plummeted. Lack of confidence in Trump’s ability to push through economic reforms were cited, although many stocks were also considered to be at high valuations, making them ripe for selling. The S&P 500 was down 38.08 points (1.54%) to 2,430.03, the Dow Jones was down 273.0 points or 1.24% at 21,750.94 and the Nasdaq was down 123.2 (1.94%) at 6,221.91.
WTI crude gained 26 cents U.S. and closed at US$47.04.
Canada’s agricultural sector performed as follows:
AGT Food and Ingredients—–dn $ 0.22 at $ 23.94
Agrium Incorporated———-dn $ 2.06 at $123,27
Buhler Industries————– $ 0.00 at $ 4.25
Maple Leaf Foods————-up $ 0.17 at $ 35.21
Potash Corp. of Sask———dn $ 0.42 at $ 21.90
(All figures are in Canadian dollars.)
