Canadian Forex Midday: C$ Falls Below Parity

By Commodity News Service Canada

Winnipeg, Feb. 8 – The Canadian dollar fell below parity with its US counterpart at midday Friday amid a slew of weak Canadian economic data, analysts said.

At 11:55 CST Friday, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.9970, or US$1=C$1.0030, which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$1.0020, or US$=C$0.9980.

Canadian employment data came in weaker than expected on Friday morning. According to Statistics Canada, the country lost 22,000 jobs in January, much lower than the 5,000 jobs increase traders expected.

Soft Canadian trade deficit data also had traders shying away from the Canadian dollar. StatsCan said Canada’s trade deficit with the world came in at C$901 million in December, which compares to C$1.7 billion in November.

Disappointing Canadian housing starts also undermined the value of the loonie. According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp, housing starts dropped to 160,600 in January, below expectations of 195,000.

The Toronto Stock Exchange was up 25.61 points, or 0.20%, at 11:55 CST Friday, to sit at 12,781.53.