The loonie climbed higher on Friday as oil prices rose and Canada’s economic growth came in stronger than expected.
The Canadian dollar was trading at an average price of US80.34¢, up 0.47 of a cent.
The loonie jumped sharply in the moments after Statistics Canada reported the economy grew by 0.6% in May, topping the 0.2% that economists had expected.
Read: Canada’s economic growth blows past expectations in May
However, Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist with Manulife Asset Management Ltd., says higher crude prices are likely more responsible for the loonie’s ascent than the economic data.
“Canadian economic growth is nice, but it tends to have less of an overall impact on the equity markets,” said Petursson,
Meanwhile, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index lost 62.71 points to 15,128.65.
Consumer discretionary stocks gave back 1.15% while consumer staples companies were down 1.01% and telecom companies lost 0.86%.
The only two sectors that closed higher were gold, up 0.96%, and materials, up 0.26%.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average advanced 33.76 points to 21,830.31, while the S&P 500 index gave back 3.32 points to 2,472.10 and the Nasdaq composite index declined 7.51 points to 6,374.68.
In commodities, the September crude contract was up US67¢ to US$49.71 a barrel and the September natural gas contract was down US3¢ at US$2.94 per mmBTU.
The August gold contract added US$8.80 to US$1,275.30 an ounce and the September copper contract was unchanged at US$2.88 a pound.