Canadian dollar and business outlook

Glacier FarmMedia — The Canadian dollar was holding relatively steady Thursday morning, finding some direction from updated quarterly earnings reports from several Canadian banks.

     At 9:20 a.m. CST the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.7167 or US$1=C$1.3953 which compares with Wednesday’s close of US$0.7169 or US$1=C$1.3949.

     TD Bank, BMO Financial Group and CIBC all reported solid fourth quarter profits, which investors took as a sign of a healthy economy.

     West Texas Intermediate crude oil was steady at US$58.95 per barrel.

     The TSX was up 206.30 points at 9:20 CST to trade at 31,366.84.