By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, Sept. 24 The Canadian dollar was sharply weaker relative to the US dollar Wednesday morning, hovering just about the 90 cents US mark.
The narrowing of the spread between Canadian and US two-year bond yields and strength in the value of the US dollar were behind the drop, analysts said.
At 9:10 CDT Wednesday the Canadian dollar was at US$0.9003 or US$=C$1.1107, which compares with Tuesday’s North American close of US$0.9034 or US$=C$1.1069.
Tuesday’s weak Canadian retail sales data and dovish comments from the Bank of Canada earlier in the week continued to be bearish for the loonie.
Spillover pressure also came from the weakness in commodities, including crude oil, gold and copper.
Some of the softness was also linked to expectations that the US Federal Reserve will change its policy next month, brokers said.
The TSX was down 33.62 points, or 0.22%, at 9:10 CDT Wednesday morning to sit at 15,092.05.
