TORONTO - The Canadian dollar was lower Wednesday amid positive U.S. housing data..
The currency was off 0.15 of a cent to 90.05 cents US.
The U.S. dollar strengthened further mid-morning amid data showing that sales of new homes rebounded in January to the fastest pace in more than five years. The Commerce Department said sales of new homes increased 9.6 per cent in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 468,000.
It came as a surprise to economists who had been forecasting a sales drop in January of around four per cent, in part because of a belief that activity would be held back by winter storms in many parts of the country.
Traders also looked ahead to other key data coming out over the next few days.
In Canada, Thursday will see the release of the current account balance for the fourth quarter on Thursday and the latest gross domestic product figures on Friday.
Beyond that, traders awaited next interest rate announcement from the Bank of Canada next Wednesday and Canadian and U.S. jobs data at the end of the week.
Commodity prices were mixed with the April crude contract in New York up 85 cents to US$102.68 a barrel.
March copper was down one cent at US$3.25 a pound while April bullion fell $16.70 to US$1,326 an ounce.