The Canadian dollar traded higher against major opponents during New York morning trading on Wednesday as a drop in crude oil prices. The loonie climbed to a fresh multi-month high versus the euro, new multi-week highs against the yen and the Australian dollar.
The official data showed today, crude oil inventories in the U.S. moved down during the week ended December 31.
The U.S Energy Information Administration in its weekly crude oil report said U.S. commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 4.20 million barrels to 335.30 million barrels last week, yet remain above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.
The week before, crude oil inventories were down by 1.3 million barrels to 339.40 million barrels.
On the economic front, the Statistics Canada said its Industrial Product Price Index, or IPPI, edged up 0.5% in the month, matching the increase in October. Economists were expecting an increase of 0.4%.
Meanwhile, the Raw Materials Price Index, or RMPI, increased by 3.5% in November as higher prices for mineral fuels, non-ferrous metals and vegetable products more than offset lower prices for animals and animal products.
Extending previous session uptrend, the loonie advanced further against the euro in New York morning today. At present, the loonie is trading at a fresh multi-month high of 1.3077 versus the euro from yesterday’s close of 1.3290.
Against its Japanese counterpart, the loonie surged up further in today’s New York morning deals and presently trading near a new multi-week high of 83.80. At Tuesday’s close, the loonie-yen pair was quoted at 82.19.
The Canadian unit that closed yesterday’s New York session at 1.0039 against the Australian dollar, edged up in New York morning session and jumped to nearly a 3-week high of 0.9930 by about 11:10 am ET. As of now, the pair is worth 0.9943.
After touching a low of 1.0025 as of 8:00 am ET, The Canadian dollar also showed strength against its US counterpart today. Currently, the loonie is trading at 0.9939 versus the greenback from Tuesday’s North American session close of 0.9919.
In the economic news, the private sector employment in the U.S. showed a substantial increase in the month of December, according to a report released by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) today, with the private sector job growth far exceeding economist estimates.
The report said private sector employment increased by 297,000 jobs in December following a downwardly revised increase of 92,000 jobs in November. Economists had expected an increase of about 97,000 jobs compared to the increase of 93,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
In another report released by the Institute for Supply Management showed that its non-manufacturing index rose to 57.1 in December from 55.0 in November, with a reading above 50 indicating growth in the service sector. Economists had expected the index to show a more modest increase to a reading of 56.0.
