Canadian Dollar And Business Outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

Winnipeg, October 31 – The Canadian dollar opened stronger against
its US counterpart on Thursday, underpinned by better-than-expected
Canadian economic data, industry watchers said.
According to Statistics Canada, the gross domestic product for
August was up 0.3%, which was above economists’ expectations of a 0.1%
gain.
Further strength came from a second Statistics Canada report that
said the average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees was
C$918 in August, which was 0.4% higher than July’s numbers.
However, losses seen in commodities, including gold, copper and
crude oil, were bearish.
A favourable US jobless claims report also limited the loonie’s
gains, brokers said. The US Department of Labour reported that claims
were down 10,000 during the week ended Oct. 26 to a seasonally adjusted
340,000.
At 8:42 CDT Thursday, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.9594 or
US$=C$1.0423 which compares with Wednesday’s North American close of
US$0.9538, or US$=C$1.0484.
The TSX was down 28.28 points Thursday morning at 8:42 CDT, to sit
at 13,427.05.