A Canadian dollar coin, commonly known as the "Loonie", is pictured in this illustration picture taken in Toronto in this January 23, 2015, file photo. The Canadian dollar pared earlier session losses against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, strengthening after data showed January growth was better than feared. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/FilesMARK BLINCH/Reuters
The Canadian dollar closed relatively flat for the second straight session, ending the day at 75.49 cents (U.S.), up 0.06 cents from Monday.
Traders kicked off the day with resale homes data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. The national home sales activity posted a small month-over-month increase in August, 2015 of 0.3 per cent. But home prices were up dramatically year-over-year. The national average sale price rose 8.7 per cent compared to last August. If you take out Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto, it increased 4.2 per cent.
While the news had little impact on the loonie, it did show that lower interest rates which are keeping the Canadian dollar lower are also contributing to consistently higher home prices.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude's October contract settled at $44.59 (U.S.) up 59 cents from Monday.
The focus remains on the U.S. Federal Reserve which is poised to make their interest rate announcement on Thursday at 2 pm ET. The announcement will be followed by a press conference that could give further insight into what monetary plans the U.S. central bank has for the remainder of 2015.
On Wednesday, Statistics Canada releases manufacturing sales data and foreign securities purchases. South of the border we get U.S. consumer price index data.
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