Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, October 15 – The Canadian dollar was choppy, but
higher, against its US counterpart Thursday, as favourable US data
balanced concerns about a Fed interest rate hike.

At 9:10 a.m. CDT the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7750 or C$1.2903
which compares with Wednesday’s North American close of US$0.7739,
or C$1.2922.

US jobless claims hit a 42-year low last week, the country’s
labour department said on Thursday, but uncertainty about whether
the US Federal Reserve would increase interest rates this year
pressured the greenback.

In Canadian domestic data, investment in non-residential
building construction amounted to C$12.9 billion in the third
quarter, down 0.5 per cent from the previous quarter, Statistics
Canada said in a report on Thursday.

According to StatsCan, this was the third consecutive quarterly
decline and largely reflected lower spending on the construction of
commercial and industrial buildings.

The TSX was weaker in early activity, down 24.02 points at 9:10
a.m. CDT to sit at 13,851.31.