By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, January 7 – The Canadian dollar was lower against its American counterpart at midday Wednesday, due to dropping oil prices and bearish trade data.
The loonie was at US$0.8439 or US$1 = C$1.1798 at 11:50 CST Wednesday morning.
The Canadian trade deficit in November was pegged at C$644 million. That was much higher than the $300 million analysts had been expecting. Exports also showed a monthly drop of 3.5 percent, the highest in two years.
On the commodity markets the February crude contract in New York rose US$0.77 to US$48.70 a barrel. March copper was unchanged at US$2.76 a pound while the February gold contract faded US$6.20 to US$1,213.20 an ounce.
At 11:50 CST Wednesday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was up 127.23 points to 14,374.00.
