By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, December 19 ‑ The Canadian dollar was trading at a weaker level compared to its US counterpart at 8:41 CST Wednesday.
Much of the softness was linked to traders liquidating long positions, just in case the worst case scenario happens with the US ‘fiscal cliff’, and tax hikes come into effect on January 1.
At 8:41 CST Wednesday, the Canadian dollar was at US$1.0130 or US$=C$0.9872, which compares with Tuesday’s North American close of US$1.0145 or US$=C$0.9857.
Soft gold and copper prices also generated some of the weakness in the Canadian dollar. But, firmer crude oil prices limited the declines.
Canadian wholesale sales were up 0.9% to C$49.2 billion in October, following a decline of 1.5% in September, Statistics Canada reported.
The number of people receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) in October was up 4,600 to 535,000 in October, following a small decline in September, StatsCan said.
The TSX was up 52.99 points, or 0.43%, at 8:41 CST Wednesday morning to sit at 12,334.34.
