By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, March 16 – The Canadian dollar was mostly unchanged against its US counterpart in early activity on Thursday.

The commodity-linked loonie was supported by strength in the crude oil market, while the US dollar was underpinned by a monetary policy announcement from the US Federal Reserve.

The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 points on Wednesday, advancing the greenback.

At 8:50 CDT Thursday, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7516 or US$=C$1.3305, which compares with Wednesday’s North American close of US$0.7515 or US$1=C$1.3307.

In Canadian domestic data, foreign investment in Canadian securities slowed to C$6.2 billion in January, down from C$10.2 billion in December, data from Statistics Canada said.

The TSX was up 58.16 points at 9:50 CDT Thursday morning to sit at 15,579.07.