Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, December 8 The Canadian dollar weakened against its US counterpart on Tuesday, hitting a fresh 11-year low, as crude oil futures extended losses.

At 8:40 a.m. CST the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7351 or C$1.3604 which compares with Monday’s North American close of US$0.7400, or C$1.3513.

Crude oil futures continued to depreciate on Tuesday after an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting on Friday. By 8:40 a.m New York Mercantile crude oil futures had lost US$0.96 to sit at US$36.69 a barrel.

OPEC participants were not able to agree on a production cap, which could mean producers will continue to add oil into an already over-supplied market.

In Canadian domestic data, municipalities issued C$7.7 billion worth of building permits in October, up 9.1 per cent from a month earlier. This was the first increase in three months, Statistics Canada said in a report on Tuesday.

According to StatsCan, the value of residential building permits rose 15.5 per cent from September to C$4.8 billion in October.

The TSX was weaker in early activity, down 146.30 points at 8:40 a.m. CST to sit at 12,896.55.