Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, September 2 – The Canadian dollar weakened against
its US counterpart Wednesday morning in light of recession news and
as crude oil prices dropped.

At 8:45 a.m. CDT the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7551 or C$1.3243
which compares with Tuesday’s North American close of US$0.7563, or
C$1.3222.

On Tuesday Statistics Canadian released a report showing that
Canada had fallen into a recession in the first half of the year,
which sent the TSX spiraling.

In other Canadian data, manufacturing sales reached an all-time
high in 2014, increasing 5.3 per cent to C$621.7 billion. Higher sales
were reported in most industries, with transportation, primary
metals and food recording the largest gains. Constant dollar sales
rose 2.7 per cent, indicating a higher volume of goods sold,
Statistics Canada said in a report on Wednesday.

According to StatsCan, the Canadian manufacturing sector
reached a milestone in 2014 as sales surpassed their pre-recession
high of $605.5 billion in 2006.

The TSX was stronger in early activity, up 84.63 points at 8:45
a.m. CDT to sit at 13,566.63.