By Commodity News Service Canada.
Winnipeg, July 15 – The Canadian dollar plunged sharply against its US counterpart at midday Wednesday, as the Bank of Canada slashed its benchmark interest rate to 0.5 percent.
The Canadian dollar was at US$0.7848 or US$1 = C$1.2742 at 11:45 CDT Wednesday morning. Oil and gold were both lower which pressured the loonie. However, most futures markets readily sustained the downward action because many of them had already factored in a cut earlier.
The Bank of Canada believes the economy fell back into a recession early in 2015.
Concern over China’s slowing economic portfolio and turmoil over a Greek vote on a bailout package further complicated the overall picture.
On the commodity markets the August crude contract in New York fell US$1.33 to US$53.65 a barrel. The August gold contract fell US$7.70 to US$1,145.80 an ounce.
At 11:45 CDT Wednesday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was up 91.98 points to 14,691.38.
