By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, April 23 – The Canadian dollar was little changed compared to its US counterpart at midday Tuesday, amid global economic concerns and strong Canadian retail sales data, analysts said.
At 11:59 CDT Tuesday, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.9744, or US$1=C$1.0263, which compares with Monday’s North American close of US$0.9746, or US$=C$1.0261.
According to Statistics Canada, retail sales were up 0.8%, to C$39.5 billion in February, beating expectations of a 0.3% increase.
Both China and Europe showed weakness in the purchasing managers’ index data released for the regions on Tuesday.
Additional pressure came from spill over from declining commodity prices, including crude oil and gold, market watchers noted.
The Toronto Stock Exchange was up 3.72 points, or 0.03%, at 11:59 CDT Tuesday, to sit at 12,094.40.
