TORONTO: The Canadian dollar was higher as oil prices advanced for a third day and data showed rising housing starts.
The loonie rose 0.48 of a cent to 80.33 cents US as Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said that starts during January came in at 187,276 units in January, up from 179,637 units in December. The increase was led by multiple urban starts, which increased to 115,008 units in January from 102,384 in December, while single-detached urban starts decreased to 57,314 units from 59,556.
On commodity markets, March crude gained 1.39 to US$53.08 a barrel.
The Canadian dollar advanced 1.18 cents US last week as oil prices essentially stopped going straight down and entered a period of volatility as traders try to find a bottom to plunging prices.
Elsewhere, April gold gained $5.70 to US$1,240.30 an ounce.
March copper erased early losses and was unchanged at US$2.59 a pound on the latest round of worry about Chinese economic growth. Imports tumbled 19.7 per cent from a year earlier on top of a decline of 2.4 per cent a month earlier. Exports dropped 3.2 per cent year-on-year, compared with a 9.7 rise in December.
However, analysts pointed out that China’s trade figures early in the year are often volatile because companies rush to fill orders before shutting down for the Lunar New Year, which falls in January or February.
Chinese demand for commodities has cooled as economic growth slowed.
Meanwhile, Greece’s new radical left government appeared set on a collision course with the country’s creditors. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is demanding a “bridge agreement” that would give Greece and its creditors time to negotiate a new debt deal much more favourable to the country by June.
The current bailout deal between Greece and its creditors runs until the end of February, but Tsipras said the government is “not entitled to ask for an extension,” saying the bailout deals that have kept the country afloat “have been abolished by popular mandate.”
