OTTAWA — The Canadian dollar continued to get battered at midday Thursday, following its first close below parity with the U.S. greenback since January.
In late-morning trading, the loonie had clawed back a few basis points from its pre-open lows, and was at 96.96 U.S., which was 2.45 cents lower than Wednesday's close of 99.41 cents U.S.. That was the first time the loonie had closed at less than $1 U.S. since Jan. 31.
The relative decline of the Canadian dollar is largely due to gains in the U.S. dollar, as investors seek less risky investment in the wake of the U.S. Federal Reserve statement Wednesday that there are "significant downside risks" in the economy.
"Confidence was already shaky, at best, and the Fed's words only heightened worries about the outlook," BMO Capital Markets economist Benjamin Reitzes said in a research note.
Commodities such as crude oil, gold and copper, which are important to the Canadian economy, were also seeing significant price declines Thursday.
In New York, crude oil was down $4.67 to $81.25 U.S. a barrel, gold was down $73.10 to $1,735.00 U.S. an ounce and copper fell 27.5 cents to $3.489 U.S. a pound.
