Loonie, TSX End 2015 Far Below Where They Began The Year

The Canadian Press CP

TORONTO — The Canadian dollar was holding steady as the Toronto Stock Exchange was set to begin the last trading day of 2015 much lower than it began the year.

The loonie was at 72.07 cents U.S., up 0.05 cents from Wednesday's close.

It has fallen about 16 per cent over the past year, since closing 2014 at 86.20 cents U.S.

The S&P/TSX index fell 103.46 points on Wednesday to close at 13,142.29.

The index is down from 14,632.44 at the end of 2014.

The Dow Jones futures were down 40.0 points at 17,469.0 before North American stock markets opened Thursday, the S&P 500 futures declined 5.2 points to 2,049.4 and the Nasdaq lost 11.0 points to 4,635.0.

On the commodity markets, the February gold contract fell $1.50 to US$1,058.30 an ounce, the February crude contract was down 31 cents at US$36.29 per barrel and the February contract for natural gas was up 13 cents at US$2.35.

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