By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, August 20 – The Canadian dollar was significantly weaker
against its US counterpart at midday Tuesday, undermined by below-
average Canadian economic data, industry watchers said.
According to a Statistics Canada report, wholesale sales were down
2.8% to C$48.8 billion in June. Sales in all five subsectors declined.
Further downward pressure continued to come from concerns that the
US Federal Reserve could slow its monetary stimulus as soon as
September, brokers said. Traders are looking ahead to Wednesday’s
release of minutes from the latest Fed policy meeting to get a clearer
picture of their intentions.
At 11:30 CDT Tuesday, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.9630
or US$1.0384, which compares with Monday’s North American close of
US$0.9669, or US$=$1.0342.
However, gains seen in commodities, including gold and copper,
helped to limit some of the loonie’s losses.
At 11:30 CDT Tuesday, the Toronto Stock Exchange was up 116.87
points to sit at 12,704.89.
