Futures and Commodity Market News

Sun May 11, 2008

Breaking financial news 24/7 courtesy of TradingCharts.com Inc. / TFC Commodity Charts

WINNIPEG, MB, May 07, 2008 (Resource News International via COMTEX) -- The Canadian dollar was trading at a firmer level versus the US dollar on Wednesday morning. Ongoing strength in global crude oil prices helped to underpin the Canadian currency, market watchers said.

On Wednesday, crude oil futures were sitting above the US$122.00 a barrel mark, with some analysts saying values could rise to US$125.00 per barrel by the end of the week.

While firm crude oil prices would be beneficial to the commodity-linked Canadian dollar, there is concern that high values will eventually weigh on the US economy and in turn Canada's economy, according to traders.

Losses in gold values, meanwhile, tempered the Canadian dollar's strength, brokers said.

There are no significant Canadian data releases scheduled for Wednesday.

On Thursday, Canada will release April housing starts data. The key data release for the week however, will come on Friday, when April jobs data is reported. Market watchers noted that activity in the Canadian dollar may be quieter than normal Wednesday due to position evening ahead of Friday's release.

At 10:00 CST on Wednesday morning, the Canadian dollar was trading at 99.76 US cents or C$1.0024. This compares with Tuesday's North American close of 99.69 US cents or C$1.0031.

The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) was higher Wednesday morning, up 23.4 points at 10:00 CST, to sit at 14,437.2.

Resource News International

Copyright 2008 Resource News International

Please read the End User Agreement.
By accessing this page, you agree to the terms and conditions of the End User Agreement.

News provided by COMTEX