By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, July 22 – The Canadian dollar was lower Tuesday as U.S. inflation figures for June came in as expected, analysts say.
At 11:40 CDT, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.9306 or US$1 = C$1.0745, down 0.14 of a cent from yesterday’s close. This was off early lows as U.S. consumer price index matched economists’ expectations when it rose 0.3 per cent during the month of June, according to the U.S. Labour Department.
Readings on U.S. inflation are considered key these days in terms of having an idea as to when the Federal Reserve might start hiking rates since the American employment situation has improved so much over the last few months, analysts noted.
Traders were also speculating that a higher than expected inflation reading would have pulled forward expectations for when the U.S. Federal Reserve will start raising interest rates.
At midday Friday the Toronto Stock Exchange was stronger, up 90.69 points at 11:40 CDT to sit at 15.340.68.
