By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, August 20 – The Canadian dollar was flat on Wednesday as traders digested data that showed a further increase in Canadian wholesale trade and look to the U.S. Federal Reserve for possible indications on the timing of interest rate increases, analysts say.
At 9:20 CDT Wednesday morning, the loonie was unchanged at US$0.9138 or US$1 = C$1.0929 as Statistics Canada reported that wholesale sales rose 0.6 per cent to C$53 billion in June. This was the third consecutive increase.
Stats Can reported that sales in the vehicle sector declined 2.4 per cent to C$9.1 billion. However, this was offset by gains in five subsectors, led by a 3.1 per cent rise in the miscellaneous subsector, which includes agricultural supplies, wholesalers of logs and woodchips, minerals, ores and precious metals and second-hand goods.
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The minutes from the U.S. central bank’s meeting last month will be released mid-afternoon and traders will be looking to see how many individual Fed members feel rates have been kept too low for too long. Many analysts are expecting the Fed to move away from rates that have hovered near zero since the financial crisis around the middle of the year.
The Fed’s chairwoman, Janet Yellen, is scheduled to deliver a speech on Friday at the central bank’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Traders are expecting Yellen to signal to the market that the central bank is in no rush to hike rates and when it does, the pace will be gradual. She is also expected to explain why she believes there is still a lot of slack in the job market.
At 9:20 CDT Wednesday morning, the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 24.98 points to 15,452.19.
