Dollar closes under 78¢

[CHIMO]

A March break holiday in the U.S. sunbelt is getting more expensive for Canadians as the loonie continues its downward slide.

Today, the Canadian dollar closed at its lowest level in nearly five years after the economy was hit with more bad news, this time in the housing sector.

The loonie fell to close at 76.98 cents U.S., down 0.45 of a cent today, its lowest level since September 2004. The dollar traded down as much as 1.20 cents earlier in the day to as low as 76.53 cents US.

A report today showed Canadian housing starts fell for the sixth straight month in February, down 12.3 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 134,600 units. February's figures are a 30 per cent drop from the same period last year.
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/599197#

Oil up, dollar down. This breaks the connection.

If one day of trading can?

But it may indicate that the tar sands are gone?

So a further slide and a bit of suffering should then have our free-market government willing to sell our resources to China. Or maybe we have to wait a bit longer, like China owning the Alcan scenario.

Boy! Those free-market people certainly have a hard time when their buddies aren't on both sides of the transaction.

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. I've read that in some industries that it is BETTER if our dollar is below the US dollar??

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BUT

seeing as the US Dollar is losing value Worldwide,

and the US is doing less business with Canada,.

then this may not be a good thing at all.

I've been watching the stock value of TD-Canada Trust for over a year.

It has dropped to 25 bucks from 75 bucks a year ago

that can't be good . .

[Anarcho-Socialist]

2. Isn't the Loonie a commodity currency to some extent?

Commodity prices became drastically inflated last year as hedge funds moved capital out of the stock markets. Those prices have come down again which could explain the Loonie's depreciation vis-a-vis the Dollar.

Here in the UK, Sterling has depreciated a lot against the Dollar too, though it's been for other reasons. Sterling had been consistently overvalued since 2001, but due to the fundamental weaknesses of the UK economy and the Anglo-American model Sterling has been slightly oversold.