TORONTO – The Canadian dollar was slightly higher Thursday amid data showing the Canadian economy performed a bit better than expected in November.

The loonie was ahead 0.02 of a cent to 99.87 cents US after Statistics Canada reported gross domestic product grewby 0.3 per cent, better than the 0.2 per cent reading that had been expected. Year over year, GDP was ahead by 1.3 per cent.

The data came a day after data showed the American economy unexpectedly stalled in the fourth quarter.

American gross domestic product shrank by 0.1 per cent amid a plunge in defence spending and a 5.7 per cent drop in exports that analysts think was linked to hurricane Sandy. The recession in parts of the eurozone also hurt performance. Economists had expected growth of 1.1 per cent in the October-December period.

Commodities were mixed with February crude down 44 cents to US$97.50 a barrel.

Copper dipped a cent to US$3.74 a pound after running ahead six cents on Wednesday. Gold bullion stepped back $5.20 to US$1,674.70 an ounce.

Traders also looked to another major piece of economic data coming out this week — the January non-farm payrolls report. Economists believe the American economy created about 153,000 jobs, roughly the same reading as December.

Canadian employment data for January comes out Feb. 8.