Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, December 15 The Canadian dollar strengthened against its US counterpart on Tuesday, as crude oil futures saw a slight uptick, and jitters ahead of a US Federal Reserve meeting pressured the greenback.

At 8:45 a.m. CST the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7290 or C$1.3717 which compares with Monday’s North American close of US$0.7279, or C$1.3738.

At 8:45 a.m., New York Mercantile crude oil futures had gained US$0.19 to sit at US$36.50 a barrel.

In Canadian domestic data, manufacturing sales declined 1.1 per cent to C$50.4 billion in October, the third consecutive decrease. Declines in the petroleum and coal product, aerospace product and parts, and machinery industries were responsible for the overall drop.

According to StatsCan, in constant dollar terms, sales were down one per cent, indicating that lower volumes of manufactured goods were sold.

The TSX was stronger in early activity, up 201.1 points at 8:45 a.m. CST to sit at 12,896.61.