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Trump comments, loonie up

The loonie was up more than half a U.S. cent in late morning trading following a Wall Street Journal report that says President-elect Donald Trump thinks the U.S. dollar is "too strong."

The loonie traded for 76.55 cents US, off its highs for the day, but still up 0.58 of a U.S. cent from Monday.

Meanwhile, North American stock markets were lower as the S&P/TSX composite index slipped 14.44 points to 15,464.85 in Toronto.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 28.52 points at 19,857.21, while the S&P 500 index slipped 4.75 points to 2,269.89. The Nasdaq composite dropped 26.24 points to 5,547.87.

Oil and gold — two of the many commodities priced in U.S. dollars on global markets — were up. February crude futures gained 30 cents to US$52.67 while February bullion futures were up US$16.70 at US$1,212.90.

February natural gas futures were down three cents at US$3.39 per mmBtu and March copper contracts were down five cents at US$2.64 per pound.

Trump's comments about the U.S. dollar were published late Monday in a story on the Journal's website about the president-elect's criticism of a Republican alternative to his proposal for import tariffs.

Trump said he thought the U.S. dollar was already too strong because China — which has the world's second-biggest economy after the United States — holds down its currency.

"Our companies can't compete with them now because our currency is too strong. And it’s killing us," he told the Journal.

A commentary Tuesday by Scotiabank's foreign exchange team said it wasn't clear whether Trump was saying the U.S. dollar was too high specifically against China's yuan or currencies in general, but investors reacted anyway.



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