Canadian dollar moves lower alongside prices for crude oil, copper

TORONTO – The Canadian dollar was little changed Wednesday amid declining prices for oil and metals.

The loonie edged up 0.04 of a cent to 100.86 cents US.

Oil prices slipped as demand worries increased amid an unexpected increase in oil supplies in the U.S.

The September contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange lost 31 cents to US$93.12 a barrel after the American Petroleum Institute said crude stockpiles in the U.S. rose some 2.8 million barrels last week. Expectations were for a drop of 1.7 million.

Metal prices continued to weaken in the wake of data released over the past few days which showed slowing Chinese export growth and a sharp drop in economic growth in Japan during the second quarter. The September copper contract on the Nymex was off a penny to US$3.35 a pound.

Bullion prices also fell back with the December contract down $1.30 to US$1,601.10 an ounce.

On the economic front, data showed that U.S. inflation remains tame as the consumer price index was unchanged in July for the third time in four months. Economists had expected the CPI to rise 0.2 per cent.

Other data coming out later in the day is expected to show that industrial production climbed 0.5 per cent in July on top of a 0.4 per cent gain in June.