Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, August 7 – The Canadian dollar weakened against its
US counterpart Friday morning as Statistics Canada released a report
on Canada’s employment rate.

At 8:45 a.m. CDT the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7602 or C$1.3154
which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$0.7629,
or C$1.3108.

Employment was little changed in July, increasing by 6,600 jobs,
totaling zero per cent, and the unemployment rate remained at 6.8
per cent for the sixth consecutive month, Statistics Canada said in
a report on Friday.

According to StatsCan, compared with 12 months earlier,
employment increased by 161,000 or 0.9 per cent, the result of more
full-time work. Over the same period, the total number of hours worked
rose 1.2 per cent.

The TSX was weaker in early activity, down 97.08 points at 8:45
a.m. CDT to sit at 14,405.91.