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TORONTO - The Canadian dollar was sent surging again Friday, driven upward by a big runup in equity markets combined with rising oil prices and a weaker U.S. dollar to levels not seen since last October.
The loonie was up 1.54 cents to 91.24 cents US after running up as high as 91.41 cents - adding up to a gain of more than seven cents US during May.
"You`ve got a couple of things - you have these green shoots, signs that the U.S. and global economies are not basically decelerating as quickly as thought, which has helped boost commodity prices," said David Watt, senior currency analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
"And you have some concerns about the U.S. dollar, which is the most pressing concern that`s going on now. I`m surprised, I didn`t expect the Canadian dollar to get to these levels and the thing that changed my perception recently has been the concern about the U.S. dollar."
The Toronto stock market was flat late morning as energy and mining stocks gained ground but the TSX was held back by falling bank stocks after Royal Bank (TSX:RY) turned in a quarterly loss.
U.S. markets were also little changed after the U.S. government said the overall economy shrank in the first quarter at a slower pace than it initially estimated while other data pointed to a much steeper drop in Midwest business activity than analysts predicted and improving consumer sentiment.
Toronto`s S&P/TSX composite index slipped 2.1 points to 10,390.3 after the latest string of earnings from the big banks helped push the main index up 250 points on Thursday.
It was the latest strong showing in a spring rally that started March 10, which has taken the TSX up over 37 per cent.
But the sector was down 1.25 per cent after Royal Bank (TSX:RY), the last of the big banks to report, turned in a $50-million second-quarter loss, down from a $928-million profit a year ago, as a $1-billion goodwill impairment charge helped push it into the red, as did rising loan loss provisions.
Excluding one-time items, cash earnings per share beat analyst estimates by six cents but its shares fell $1.77 to $43.73. Elsewhere in the sector, CIBC (TSX:CM) shed $1.13 to $53.34 on top of a loss of almost five per cent Thursday in the wake of a poorly-received earnings report.
The TSX Venture Exchange climbed 17.24 points to 1,122.4.
New York`s Dow Jones industrial average was off 3.8 points to 8,400 after running up 104 points as the Commerce Department said first-quarter gross domestic product fell by 5.7 per cent. Last month, it estimated GDP declined by 6.1 per cent but the new figures is still slightly larger than analyst forecasts.
The Nasdaq composite index moved down 2.2 points to 1,749.59 while the S&P 500 index inched up 0.55 of a point to 907.4.
The index from Chicago-area purchasing executives showed a larger drop in activity in May than in April. Analysts had anticipated a slightly smaller contraction. The report is viewed as a precursor to the more closely watched national manufacturing index from the Institute for Supply Management, due Monday.
But helping counteract that data was the University of Michigan`s index of consumer sentiment, which showed a larger-than-expected increase in May. Another report earlier in the week also suggested that consumers` confidence is on the upswing.
In other earnings news, Dell Inc. said Thursday its first-quarter profit fell 63 per cent as the recession continued to crimp computer sales around the world. The results, coupled with a cautious outlook from the world`s top PC seller, Hewlett-Packard Co., indicate that the computer market has not improved much since last year`s economic meltdown led to a holiday season that was the industry`s worst stretch in six years.
Read the full article here.
The loonie was up 1.54 cents to 91.24 cents US after running up as high as 91.41 cents - adding up to a gain of more than seven cents US during May.
"You`ve got a couple of things - you have these green shoots, signs that the U.S. and global economies are not basically decelerating as quickly as thought, which has helped boost commodity prices," said David Watt, senior currency analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
"And you have some concerns about the U.S. dollar, which is the most pressing concern that`s going on now. I`m surprised, I didn`t expect the Canadian dollar to get to these levels and the thing that changed my perception recently has been the concern about the U.S. dollar."
The Toronto stock market was flat late morning as energy and mining stocks gained ground but the TSX was held back by falling bank stocks after Royal Bank (TSX:RY) turned in a quarterly loss.
U.S. markets were also little changed after the U.S. government said the overall economy shrank in the first quarter at a slower pace than it initially estimated while other data pointed to a much steeper drop in Midwest business activity than analysts predicted and improving consumer sentiment.
Toronto`s S&P/TSX composite index slipped 2.1 points to 10,390.3 after the latest string of earnings from the big banks helped push the main index up 250 points on Thursday.
It was the latest strong showing in a spring rally that started March 10, which has taken the TSX up over 37 per cent.
But the sector was down 1.25 per cent after Royal Bank (TSX:RY), the last of the big banks to report, turned in a $50-million second-quarter loss, down from a $928-million profit a year ago, as a $1-billion goodwill impairment charge helped push it into the red, as did rising loan loss provisions.
Excluding one-time items, cash earnings per share beat analyst estimates by six cents but its shares fell $1.77 to $43.73. Elsewhere in the sector, CIBC (TSX:CM) shed $1.13 to $53.34 on top of a loss of almost five per cent Thursday in the wake of a poorly-received earnings report.
The TSX Venture Exchange climbed 17.24 points to 1,122.4.
New York`s Dow Jones industrial average was off 3.8 points to 8,400 after running up 104 points as the Commerce Department said first-quarter gross domestic product fell by 5.7 per cent. Last month, it estimated GDP declined by 6.1 per cent but the new figures is still slightly larger than analyst forecasts.
The Nasdaq composite index moved down 2.2 points to 1,749.59 while the S&P 500 index inched up 0.55 of a point to 907.4.
The index from Chicago-area purchasing executives showed a larger drop in activity in May than in April. Analysts had anticipated a slightly smaller contraction. The report is viewed as a precursor to the more closely watched national manufacturing index from the Institute for Supply Management, due Monday.
But helping counteract that data was the University of Michigan`s index of consumer sentiment, which showed a larger-than-expected increase in May. Another report earlier in the week also suggested that consumers` confidence is on the upswing.
In other earnings news, Dell Inc. said Thursday its first-quarter profit fell 63 per cent as the recession continued to crimp computer sales around the world. The results, coupled with a cautious outlook from the world`s top PC seller, Hewlett-Packard Co., indicate that the computer market has not improved much since last year`s economic meltdown led to a holiday season that was the industry`s worst stretch in six years.
Read the full article here.