TORONTO - The Canadian dollar moved lower near midday Wednesday as key commodities weakened. The loonie dropped 0.07 of a cent to 98.14 cents US. The June crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down $1.52 at US$82.51 a barrel. The U.S. Energy Department said in its weekly report that crude oil supplies rose last week by 2.9 million barrels, or 0.7 per cent, to 387.3 million barrels, which is 6.4 per cent above year-ago levels. August gold was off $19.10 at US$1,604.10 an ounce, while copper prices were down three cents at US$3.41 a pound. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada said there was an average of 248,000 job vacancies in the country in three-month period ended in March, up 19,000 from the same period in 2011. However, it says there were just 5.8 unemployed people for every vacancy, down from 6.5 in March 2011. That was because of both an increase in vacancies and a decline in the number of unemployed people. In the United States, the Federal Reserve will wrap up its two-day meeting and expectations suggest that it will announce plans to extend a program of buying long-term bonds to keep rates low, or at least signal a readiness to act should the economy sputter.

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