Canadian Forex Midday: C$ down over half a cent

By Commodity News Service Canada

Winnipeg, December 12 – The Canadian dollar was down over half a
cent against its US counterpart at midday Thursday, undermined by
better-than-expected US economic data, market watchers said.
The US Department of Commerce said retail sales in November were
up 0.7%, beat trading expectations of a 0.6% increase.
Further weakness came from concerns that the US Federal Reserve
could decide to slow their monetary stimulus as early as next week,
traders said.
However, positive Canadian economic news did limit any further
losses, brokers said. According to Statistics Canada, Canada’s foreign
debt fell by C$41.1 billion to C$66.2 billion by the end of the third-
quarter of 2013.
At 11:44 CST Thursday, the Canadian dollar was trading at
US$0.9389 or US$1.0650, which compares with Wednesday’s North American
close of US$0.9440, or US$=$1.0593
At 11:44 CST Thursday, the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 24.31
points to sit at 13,109.11.