Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, December 10 The Canadian dollar weakened against its US counterpart on Thursday as crude oil futures handed back gains.

At 8:40 a.m. CST the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7368 or C$1.3572 which compares with Wednesday’s North American close of US$0.7372, or C$1.3564.

At 8:40 a.m., New York Mercantile crude oil futures had lost US$0.19 to sit at US$36.97 a barrel.

In Canadian domestic data, the new housing price index rose 0.3 per cent in October, following a 0.1 per cent increase in September. The gain was largely attributable to higher new home prices in Ontario, Statistics Canada said in a report on Thursday.

The TSX was weaker in early activity, down 6.85 points at 8:40 a.m. CST to sit at 12,930.74.