Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, August 14 – The Canadian dollar gained some ground
against its US counterpart Friday morning as Statistics Canada
released a report on refined petroleum products.

At 8:50 a.m. CDT the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7665 or C$1.3046
which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$0.7655,
or C$1.3064.

Canadian refineries received 7.7-million cubic metres of crude
oil in May, down 11.9 per cent compared with the same month in 2014.
Refinery receipts of domestic crude oil totaled 4.7-million cubic
metres, down 21.2 per cent from the same month a year earlier,
Statistics Canada said in a report on Friday.

According to StatsCan, crude oil imports increased 8.4 per cent
from May 2014 to three-million cubic metres in May. Imports
represented 38.7 per cent of total crude oil received at refineries
in Canada.

Statistics Canada also reported a decrease in Canada’s domestic
petroleum sales. Domestic sales of refined petroleum products
totaled 8.7 million cubic metres in May, down 2.5 per cent from the
same time the year prior.

In other Canadian economic data, the average total income of
farm operators in Canada increased 3.5 per cent to C$93,723 in 2013,
according to data from personal income tax returns.

The TSX was stronger in early activity, up 27.37 points at 8:50
a.m. CDT to sit at 14,089.03.