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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 at 75.63 cents (U.S) Tuesday, down 0.38 cents from Monday's close of 76.01 cents.

A number of factors dragged the Canadian dollar on Tuesday, including news reports that Canada was officially in a recession for the first half of 2015. Statistics Canada reported Canada's GDP contracted by 0.1 per cent in the period from April to June. The economy also shrank in the first quarter of 2015, the period from January to March. Two quarters of consecutive contraction meets the technical definition of a recession.

The Toronto Stock Exchange reacted negatively to the GDP news falling more than 370 points in trading on Tuesday.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was under remarkable pressure, falling $3.79 (U.S.) or 7.7 per cent, to close the day at $45.41 (U.S.) Tuesday's drop in oil price comes after crude saw the strongest multi-day rally since the beginning of the 1990s.

Later this week Statistics Canada releases employment data for the month of August. This could serve as more recessionary evidence. If the numbers disappoint it could put more downward pressure on the Canadian dollar.

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Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 28/03/24 9:37pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
CADUSD-FX
Canadian Dollar/U.S. Dollar
+0.01%0.73857

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