(RTTNews) - The Canadian dollar showed weakness against its major rivals in early New York trading on Thursday. The loonie slumped to a 3-day low against the euro and a 2-day low versus the US dollar. The decline in Canada's dollar came after the price of oil, one of the nation's key exports whose price often dictates the currency's direction, fell $76.0 a barrel in the session. The Canadian dollar reached a 3-day low of 1.5936 against the euro around 10:00 am ET and is heading to break its immediate support level of 1.595. The euro-loonie pair is currently trading at 1.593, down 0.7 percent from Wednesday's close of 1.5816. The euro gained after the European Central Bank held its key interest rate unchanged at a record low of 1% for a seventh straight month. The decision was in line with economists' expectations. The central bank also retained its interest rate on the marginal lending facility at 1.75% and that on the deposit facility at 0.25%. Commenting on the rate, the ECB chief Trichet said the Governing Council will gradually phase out, at the appropriate time, the extraordinary liquidity measures that are not needed to the same extent as in the past. In order to counter effectively any threat to price stability over the medium to longer term, the liquidity provided will be absorbed when necessary. The loonie that advanced versus the yen in early morning deals due to across the board weakening of the latter reversed its course after hitting a 9-day high of 84.11 around 8:30 am ET. The loonie-yen pair, which closed Wednesday's deals at 83.18, drifted lower to 83.45 by 10:00 am ET and the pair is presently quoted at 83.8. Japan's third quarter Capital spending plunged 24.8% year-on-year in the third quarter, faster than the 21.7% fall in the preceding quarter, the Ministry of Finance reported earlier today. The decline was considerably faster than analyst expectations for a 16% fall. Excluding software, capital expenditure slumped 25.7% annually in the third quarter, more severe than the 22.2% decrease in the previous quarter. Against the US dollar, the Canadian dollar declined to a 2-day low of 1.0575 by 10:00 am ET, down 1.6 percent from Tuesday's new multi-week highs of 1.0409. The greenback-loonie pair that was worth 1.0513 at Wednesday's close is presently worth 1.057 with 1.072 seen as the next likely target level. The greenback gained after the Labor Department released its report on first-time claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended November 28th, showing that initial jobless claims edged down to 457,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 462,000.

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