Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, October 22 – The Canadian dollar strengthened against
its US counterpart Thursday as a recovery in crude oil lent a hand
to the commodity-linked loonie.

At 8:45 a.m. CDT the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7632 or C$1.3103
which compares with Wednesday’s North American close of US$0.7612,
or C$1.3137.

New York Mercantile oil futures were stronger in early activity,
gaining US$0.40 to sit at US$45.60 a barrel in the December contract.

In Canadian domestic data, retail sales rose for the fourth
consecutive month, advancing 0.5 per cent to C$43.6 billion in
August. The increase was led by higher sales at motor vehicle and
parts dealers. Excluding this subsector, retail sales were flat,
Statistics Canada said in a report on Thursday.

In other domestic data, in August 7,900 fewer people received
regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits compared with July, down
1.4 per cent to 536,800. On a year-over-year basis, the number of
EI beneficiaries increased by 35,600 or 7.1 per cent, according to
StatsCan.

The TSX was stronger in early activity, up 55.73 points at 8:45
a.m. CDT to sit at 13,759.92.