During New York mid-day trading on Tuesday, the Canadian dollar traded lower against most major rivals as today's data out of Canada revealed the nation had its biggest trade deficit on record in the month of July.
In economic news, Statistics Canada said trade deficit with the world expanded from $1.9 billion in June to $2.3 billion in July as exports fell 3.4 percent and imports decreased 2.2 percent in July. Exports of energy products fell 8.5 percent to $8.2 billion in July on lower volumes and prices. Economists expected trade deficit of $1.40 billion.
Meanwhile, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp said the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts was 224,900 units in August, compared with 208,000 units in July. The July figure was revised down slightly from 208,500 units reported previously.
The price of crude oil edged up Tuesday morning as traders await cues from the the FOMC meeting and a verdict by the German constitutional court on the ESM due on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in its monthly oil market report, said it still expects supply from other oil producers to outpace the rise in global demand next year by a small margin, highlighting the downside risks to demand due to contagion from the euro zone crisis.
Crude for October added $0.36 to $96.90 a barrel.
After hitting a 4-day high of 1.2423 by about 7:45 am ET, the loonie reversed its direction against the European common currency and presently trading near 1.2508.
Against its Japanese counterpart, the loonie edged down further in North American session and currently trading near 79.95 from previous session's multi-day high of 80.41.
The Canadian unit also traded lower against the Australian dollar in today's New York morning and as of now trading near a 4-day low of 1.0161, which may be compared to last session's high of 1.0084.
On the other hand, the US dollar showed weakness against the Canadian dollar on Tuesday and fell to more than a 1-year low of 0.9716 in early morning session. Presently, the pair is worth 0.9722.
by RTT Staff Writer
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