Canadian Forex Midday: C$ Lower As Oil Inventories Grow

By Commodity News Service Canada

Winnipeg, February 19 – The Canadian dollar was lower against its American counterpart at midday Thursday, as reports of growing US oil inventories pulled down crude prices.

The loonie was at US$0.8000 or US$1 = C$1.2000 at 11:50 CST Thursday morning.

The American Petroleum Institute found that US oil inventories rose by 14.3 million barrels last week. That high number was problematic, say analysts, as it points to a huge imbalance in the supply/demand ratio.

Investors were also waiting to see if a compromise could be reached between Eurozone officials and the new Greek government. A recent request for a new wave of bridge financing was reportedly denied by Germany, which wants Greece to commit to repaying its debt.

Goldcorp Inc. saw red Thursday as the company was forced to take a $2.3 billion dollar impairment charge on a new mine in Argentina.

On the commodity markets the March copper contract was unchanged at US$2.56 a pound. The March crude contract in New York was down US$0.45 at US$51.69 a barrel. The April gold contract rose US$10.80 to US$1,211.00 an ounce.

At 11:50 CST Thursday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 49.19 points to 15,163.56.