By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, August 1 – The Canadian dollar was slightly lower against its US counterpart at midday Friday, after US employment data came in lower than expected.
The US Labour Department said the American economy created 209,000 jobs last month. That is below the expected total of 225,000 jobs.
On the bright side the Chinese manufacturing sector came in above expectations with an official purchasing managers index of 51.7 in July, that is the highest reading in 27 months.
On the commodity markets, the December gold contact gained $12.70 to US$1,295.50 an ounce. September copper fell one cent to US$3.22 a pound. The September crude oil contract fell US$0.79 cents to US$97.38 a barrel.
At 11:40 CDT Friday, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.9164 or US$1.0912, which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$0.9171, or US$=$1.0904.
At 11:40 CDT Friday, the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 131.48 points to sit at 15,199.25.
