Canadian dollar falls below 70-cent US mark again, TSX also lower

The first time the Canadian dollar weakened below 70 USA cents was 1997, before the country’s oil industry took off and when its government was wrestling with a budget deficit.

In mid-afternoon trading, the loonie was at 69.75 cents US, a loss of 0.39 of a cent. The last time the dollar settled below the 70-cent USA mark was on April 30, 2003, when it was 69.76 cents U.S.

The Canadian dollar is dropping fast, and at least one investment bank is predicting it will hit a record low in 2016.

Most teams have hedging policies in place to protect against a drop in the dollar, but even top revenue-earning teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks will face a challenge, Hodgson said.

Sid Mokhtari, a technical analyst at CIBC Capital Markets says he’s seen the relationship between plunging oil prices and the loonie grow stronger in recent weeks, a trend he believes could push the currency lower.

Metals and mining sector saw a second day of sharp loses, posing a 5.18 percent drop. The S&P 500 was up 31.39 points at 1,921.67, down 9.8 per cent from its peak, while the Nasdaq was ahead 87.44 points at 4,613.50.

“Who knows if at some point the bargain hunters might start to step in again?”

On the commodity markets, the February gold contract was down $1.10 at US$1,086.00 an ounce and the February crude contract was up 43 cents at US$30.91 per barrel – near the lowest levels in years.

In economic news, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s beige book, which contains anecdotal evidence of economic conditions, indicated “modest” economic growth in most regions.

“But that’s a good thing”, he said.

It mostly traded below 70 US cents between 1997 and 2003, a period when manufacturing made up a larger part of exports than oil.