Loonie falters, then rallies to get back above 80 cents US

The Canadian dollarshowed a gain of more than half acentUS Thursday, climbing back above 80 cents USafter fallingas low as78.49 in early trading.

It fetched about 80.27 cents US in late trading, up 0.57 from Wednesday's close.

The looniehas fallen sharply recently, pushed down by a drop in oil prices and a rally in the U.S. dollar.

On Wednesday, it dropped 2.69 cents to end at 79.70 cents US. That was its first close under 80 cents US since June 2005.