The Canadian dollar was nearly unchanged against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday after a planned oil pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska met with a setback, offsetting domestic data that showed a rise in factory sales.
According to Reuters, a federal judge in Montana on Wednesday ordered the U.S. State Department to do a full environmental review of a revised route for a phase of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, which, when completed, would carry heavy crude to Steele City in Nebraska from Canada’s oil sands.
The pipeline could help reduce transport bottlenecks for Canadian oil, which trades at a discount to the price of U.S. crude.
Canadian factory sales grew by 1.1 per cent in June from May, thanks largely to a rebound in petroleum and coal products after temporary shutdowns in the spring, Statistics Canada said.
At 9:37 a.m. EDT today, the loonie was trading near flat at $1.3144 to the U.S. greenback, or 76.08 U.S. cents.
The currency, which lagged many other “G10” currencies on Wednesday, traded in a range of $1.3114 to $1.3164. On Monday, it neared a three-week low of $1.3179.
Mexico’s economy minister on Wednesday told Reuters that Mexico and the United States may not meet an August goal to finish bilateral talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement, and is threatened by disagreements over automobile trade rules and other issues.
The U.S. dollar weakened against a basket of other major currencies as news that a Chinese delegation will travel to the United States for trade talks prompted investors to buy back into currencies hit hard in a selloff in recent days.
U.S. crude oil futures were up 0.1 per cent at $65.09 a barrel.
(Reuters)
