By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, May 13 – The Canadian dollar was stronger against its US counterpart at midday Wednesday, due to higher crude-oil prices and a broadly weaker US dollar.
The loonie was at US$0.8370 or US$1 = C$1.1947 at 11:40 CDT Wednesday morning. The loonie is lagging the Australian currency though, said a trader, noting we have a lack of domestic data right now for traders to get behind.
For the fourth consecutive month, housing prices in Canada were on the increase. Prices were up 4.4 percent from a year earlier. However, gains were mostly flat in Toronto and Vancouver.
On the commodity markets the June crude contract in New York rose US$0.34 to US$61.09 a barrel. The June gold contract jumped US$23.20 to US$1,215.60 an ounce.
At 11:40 CDT Wednesday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 58.61 points to 14,984.54.
