Canadian Dollar And Business Outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

Winnipeg, April 30 – The Canadian dollar was lower against its American counterpart Thursday morning, amid weak economic news and lower gold prices.

At 8:50 CDT Thursday morning, the loonie was down 0.0037 of a cent to US$0.8286 or US$1 = C$1.2069. New numbers show Canada’s GDP was unchanged in the second month of the year while manufacturing activity dropped 0.8 percent. A report said the decrease was driven by lower durable goods manufacturing.

However, the same report also pointed out the country’s service sector rose by 0.1 percent while retail trade climbed 1.5 percent for its first increase in three months.

Potash Corporation says lower production costs helped it reap a US$370 million profit this year.

On the commodity markets the May crude contract in New York climbed US$0.48 to US$59.06 a barrel. The May gold contract sank $23.80 to US$1,1186.20 an ounce.

At 8:50 CDT Thursday morning, the TSX was up 1.27 points to 15,347.89,19.