Canadian Dollar And Business Outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, November 27 – The Canadian dollar was lower relative to its US counterpart on Friday as Canadian producer prices declined last month at a quicker rate than most analysts expected.

According to Statistics Canada, the domestic industrial product price index fell 0.5% in October. Most industry-watchers expected that number to be closer to 0.1%. The drop was largely spurred by lower production in the auto sector.

At 8:45 a.m. CST the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7481 or C$1.3367 which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$0.7522, or C$1.3294.

On the commodity markets, the January crude oil contract was trending lower on Friday. The contract opened on the New York Mercantile exchange at US$43.25 a barrel but was at US$42.08 a barrel at 8:45 a.m. CST. The February gold bullion value was down 11 dollars at US$1,058.70 an ounce.

The TSX was lower in early activity, down 2.50 points at 8:45 a.m. CST to sit at 13,442.69.