TORONTO - The Canadian dollar was little changed Wednesday with markets relatively quiet amid an empty economic calendar. The loonie was off 0.01 of a cent to 92.06 cents US. The showing followed an equally uneventful session Tuesday that saw the loonie close flat. Action was similarly lacklustre on the commodity markets where July crude in New York slipped seven cents to US$104.04 a barrel. July copper was unchanged at US$3.18 a pound, while June gold was also unchanged at US$1,265.50 an ounce. The pace for economic releases picks up later in the week. Traders are particularly interested in seeing how the Canadian economy performed in the first three months of the year. Statistics Canada releases gross domestic product data for March and the first quarter on Friday. Economists are looking for an annualized rise of 1.7 per cent for the quarter and 0.1 per cent for the month. That data is of particular concern, coming out days before the Bank of Canada releases its next interest rate announcement. Also, traders will be looking for the latest U.S. data to see if the American economy actually contracted in the first quarter when the first revision to U.S. gross domestic product data is released Thursday. The initial report showed growth coming in at a paltry 0.1 per cent as severe winter weather impacted the economy, but markets are braced for a worse reading.

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