The Canadian dollar continued to advance against the U.S. dollar Wednesday on rising gold prices and mixed U.S. economic data.

Gold continued to gain strength, trading near US$950 per ounce for most of the morning. Silver and platinum were among the other precious metals to advance as investors saw an opportunity to buy back into precious metals. All three of the main metal plays have been hammered in recent days.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, new orders for manufactured durable goods decreased by US$3.6 billion, or 1.7 per cent, in February to US$210.6 billion. This was the second consecutive monthly decrease and followed a 4.7-per-cent decrease in January. While new orders for durable goods decreased, inventories of manufactured durable goods increased for the eighth straight month, by US$1.6 billion, or 0.5 per cent, to US$323.7 billion, indicating that the supply of manufactured goods is outweighing demand.

The 10 a.m. release of U.S. new home sales figures gave the greenback a much-needed boost. Sales of new single-family homes in February 2008 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000, according to estimates released jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. While the numbers are encouraging, it is estimated that at current sales levels it will take 9.8 months to completely exhaust the current supply of unsold homes in the U.S.

By 11:45 a.m. Wednesday morning the Canadian dollar was trading at 0.9833 against the U.S. dollar.

Market report prepared by Bruce Hauser and Patrick May

Accu-Rate Corporation

2573 Carling Ave. Ottawa, ON K2B 7H7

Tel: (613) 596-5505

E-mail: bruce@accu-rate.ca or patrick@accu-rate.ca