By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, April 19 – The Canadian dollar was holding relatively steady with its US counterpart Friday morning, as the currency reacted to the conflicting news of rising commodity markets and softer inflation data.
At 9:22 CDT Friday morning the Canadian dollar was at US$0.9749 or C$1.0257 which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$0.9747, or C$1.0260.
Gold, crude oil, and other commodities were showing some firmness on Friday, which helped underpin the Canadian currency.
On the other side, Canada’s inflation rate slowed to 1.0% in March, after hitting 1.2% the previous month, reported Statistics Canada. The decline was largely due to a reduction in gasoline prices, and core inflation, which excludes energy and other volatile items, held steady at 1.4%.
The TSX was stronger Friday morning, up 7.66 points at 9:22 CDT to sit at 12,004.00.
