Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, Jan. 20 The Canadian dollar was weaker Wednesday morning, as losses in crude oil weighed on prices and market participants awaited the Bank of Canada’s latest interest rate announcement.

At 8:35 CST Wednesday morning the Canadian dollar was at US$0.6833 or C$1.4635 which compares with Tuesday’s North American close of US$0.6869, or C$1.4559.

The Bank of Canada is expected to announce its interest rate decision at 9:00 CST. Some economists are anticipating a rate cut, while others expect the bank will hold its key overnight rate unchanged at 0.5%.

In other domestic data, Canadian wholesale sales were up by 1.8% in November, hitting C$55.9 billion, according to Statistics Canada. The increase was the first in five months. StatsCan also reported that manufacturing sales increased by 1.0% in November, to C$50.8 billion.

The TSX was weaker, down 158.90 points at 8:35 CST to sit at 11,843.31.