Canadian Dollar And Business Outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, December 14 – The Canadian dollar was flat compared to its US counterpart at 8:38 CST Friday, amid strong Chinese manufacturing data, and soft Canadian manufacturing data, analysts said.

HSBC Corp. released its preliminary Chinese December Purchasing Managers’ Index, which rose to 50.9, from 50.5 in November.

Statistics Canada reported Canadian manufacturing sales were down 1.4% in October, to C$48.8 billion, falling below pre- report expectations of a 0.2% decline.

At 8:38 CST Friday, the Canadian dollar was at US$1.0153 or US$=C$0.9849, which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$1.0154 or US$=C$0.9848.

The Canadian dollar was also flat, as commodity prices were mixed. Crude oil values were higher, while gold prices fell and copper was nearly unchanged.

Traders were watching budge talks in the US, as a solution to the impending ‘fiscal cliff’, has yet to surface. The country will suffer tax increases if there is no solution made before January 1, 2013.

The TSX was up 12.50 points, or 0.10%, at 8:38 CST Friday morning to sit at 12,301.67.