By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, January 6 – The Canadian dollar was lower Tuesday morning, as oil sunk below the key US$50 a barrel mark.
At 8:50 CST Tuesday morning, the loonie was down 0.0015 of a cent to US$0.8486 or US$1 = C$1.1784. Oil prices continue to soften in the face of high inventories and slowing demand from Eurasia.
China has reportedly decided to proceed with US$1.1 trillion worth of infrastructure spending on 300 projects in an effort to boost growth. The move comes as the country’s purchasing managers’ index jumped 0.4 of a point to 53.4 which was the highest it’s been in three months.
Traders are also waiting to see employment data from the US and Canada. Those figures are due out on Friday.
On the commodity markets the February crude contract in New York dropped $0.92 to US$49.12 a barrel. March copper was unchanged at US$2.76 a pound while the February gold contract rose 5.30 to US$1,209.30 an ounce.
At 8:50 CST Tuesday morning, the TSX was down 65.18 points to 14,327.52.
