The Canadian dollar weakened today as prices for crude oil declined, while the market sentiment was not supportive for riskier currencies. Against the euro, the Canadian currency was rising.
Futures on crude oil fell as much as 2.5 percent to $83.65 per barrel on NYMEX today. Crude dropped on fears that the crisis in Europe and its negative impact on the global economy would persist. Yesterday, oil climbed on concerns that a strike would halt all oil production in Norway. The government intervened, preventing that from happening, and crude oil lost all its gains.
Profits of companies, tracked by the Standard & Poorâs 500 Index, was down 1.8 percent in the second quarter of this year. The S&P 500 declined 0.8 percent today, following the earlier advance 0.7 percent. The falling profits signal that economic activity is slowing, cutting demand for currencies related to growth.
USD/CAD was up from 1.0190 to 1.0226, following the earlier drop to 1.0165, while CAD/JPY was down from 78.04 to 77.63 as of 22:12 GMT today. At the same time, EUR/CAD declined from 1.2551 to 1.2527 and its intraday low was at 1.2492, near yesterday’s minimum, which was the lowest since June 2010.
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