TORONTO -- The Canadian dollar found some strength Wednesday amid a quiet, shortened trading day and downward pressure from lower commodities.
The loonie gained 0.23 of a cent to 86.21 cents US.
Oil prices seem to have stabilized over the last few days after plunging 1/4in recent weeks due to falling demand and a production glut. At its height, crude prices reached US$107 a barrel, but have now levelled out around the US$55 a barrel mark.
On Wednesday, the January crude oil contract was down $1 to US$56.12 a barrel.
Other commodities were also lower, as the February gold bullion contract fell $2.70 to US$1,175.20 an ounce, while March copper dipped two cents to US$2.85 a pound.
Camilla Sutton, chief FX strategist at Scotiabank, said the loonie looks like it will continue to stay soft amid signs that the U.S. economy is continuing to improve and the growing likelihood that the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike interest rates in mid-2015.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Commerce Department revised its latest gross domestic product figures for the third quarter. The department said the economy expanded by five per cent, the fastest in 11 years, helped by consumer spending. It had previously reported growth of 3.9 per cent for the quarter. Economists had anticipated a revision to 4.3 per cent.
In Canada, GDP grew by 0.3 per cent in October, beating the consensus expectations of economists, who had predicted growth of 0.1 per cent for the month. The economy had grown by 0.4 per cent in September.
Statistics Canada attributed much of the the growth to oil and gas extraction, mining and manufacturing.
