By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, Sept. 25 The Canadian dollar was down sharply relative to the US dollar Thursday morning.
A strengthening US dollar, which was linked to positive employment data, was behind the weakness in the loonie, analysts said. Unemployment insurance claims were up by 12,000 to 293,000 last week in the US, which was below expectations of 296,000.
At 9:09 CDT Thursday the Canadian dollar was at US$0.9013 or US$=C$1.1095, which compares with Wednesday’s North American close of US$0.9044 or US$=C$1.1057.
Ideas that the Bank of Canada won’t raise interest rates as fast as the US Federal Reserve were also behind the declines, as were dovish comments from the Bank of Canada earlier in the week.
Spillover pressure came from the declines seen in gold and copper prices, though a firmer tone in crude oil was supportive for the Canadian dollar.
The TSX was down 145.72 points, or 0.96%, at 9:09 CDT Thursday morning to sit at 14,974.82.
