Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, November 16 The Canadian dollar weakened against its US counterpart Monday morning as Statistics Canada released a manufacturing report.

At 8:40 a.m. CST the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7492 or C$1.3348 which compares with Friday’s North American close of US$0.7509, or C$1.3318.

In Canadian domestic data, manufacturing sales declined 1.5 per cent to C$51.1 billion in September, following a 0.6 per cent decrease in August. Lower sales in the motor vehicle assembly and the petroleum and coal product industries were responsible for the decline, Statistics Canada said in a report on Friday.

According to StatsCan, sales were down in 13 of 21 industries, representing 78.6 per cent of Canadian manufacturing.

The TSX was stronger in early activity, up 75.30 points at 8:40 a.m. CST to sit at 13,150.72.