By Commodity News Service Canada.
Winnipeg, July 31 – The Canadian dollar was lower against its US counterpart at midday Friday, as the Canadian economy declined for the fifth consecutive month in May.
The Canadian dollar was at US$0.7673 or US$1 = C$1.3033 at 11:45 CDT Friday morning. The economy shrank 0.2 percent from April, increasing the likelihood that Canada is in recession.
Canada also suffered losses in manufacturing and gas extraction.
TransCanada is warning that the estimated C$12 billion cost of the Energy East pipeline is set to rise.
Month-end rebalancing is also expected to steer the direction of the loonie.
On the commodity markets the September crude contract in New York fell US$0.89 to US$48.02 a barrel. The August gold contract rose US$5.80 to US$1,094.60 an ounce.
At 11:45 CDT Friday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was up 110.61 points to 14,493.91.
