Loonie lower amid mixed commodities, traders look to Bank of Canada announcement

TORONTO – The Canadian dollar was little changed Monday morning amid generally quiet trading as U.S. markets were closed for the Memorial Day holiday and traders looked to the Bank of Canada’s latest announcement on interest rates.

The loonie dipped 0.03 of a cent to 96.86 cents US.

The Bank of Canada makes its next announcement Wednesday, the last such word on rates from outgoing central bank governor Mark Carney.

“Carney’s last interest rate decision won’t have any fireworks with no move on rates and likely no change in the final lines of the statement that allude to a period on hold, followed at some point by a hike,” said CIBC World Markets chief economist Avery Shenfeld in a commentary.

On commodity markets, the July crude contract was off 58 cents to US$93.57 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

June bullion gained $7.30 to US$1,393.90 an ounce while July copper added a penny to US$3.31 a pound.