TORONTO — The Canadian dollar was higher against the greenback Thursday amid generally small moves in commodity prices.
The loonie was up 0.29 of a cent to 101.82 cents US, its highest level in almost three years.
Oil prices were soft after data Wednesday showed crude inventories rose far less than expected last week and pushed oil up to US$85 a barrel.
On Thursday, the March crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped six cents to US$84.93 a barrel.
Copper prices continued to retreat from the latest record high reached on Monday. The March copper contract in New York edged one cent lower to US$4.46 a pound.
Gold advanced for a fourth session with the April contract on the Nymex ahead $5.30 to US$1,380.40 an ounce.
Traders are looking to the latest reading of inflation at the end of the week for an indication of when the Bank of Canada will resume pushing interest rates higher.
Statistics Canada is expected to report Friday that the consumer price index rose by 0.2 per cent in January, driven largely by rising food and energy prices.
Economists say the small gain would push the annualized rate down to 2.3 per cent, from 2.4 per cent the previous month.
The central bank makes its next announcement on interest rates on March 1.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Labour Department reported Thursday that a big jump in food and gas costs pushed consumer prices up in January, but outside those volatile categories inflation was relatively tame.
The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 per cent last month, matching December's increase. In the past year, the index has risen 1.6 per cent.
Excluding food and energy, the core index rose 0.2 per cent.
There was also some negative news on the U.S. employment front as the department also reported rising numbers of people applying for unemployment insurance.
It said 410,000 people sought unemployment assistance last week, a jump of 25,000 from the previous week. The rise was much larger than economists had expected.
