Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, January 14 The Canadian dollar weakened against its US counterpart on Thursday, in choppy trading, as movement in crude oil futures caused turbulence in commodity-linked currency markets.

At 8:50 a.m. CST the Canadian dollar was at US$0.6963 or C$1.4362 which compares with Wednesday’s North American close of US$0.6971, or C$1.4345.

New York Mercantile crude oil futures had gained US$0.37 a barrel to sit at US$30.85 at 8:50 a.m. on Thursday.

However, crude oil futures were chopping around in early activity on Thursday, as the market considered the prospect of Iran adding its supplies to the global glut.

In Canadian domestic data, Canadian refineries received 7.7 million cubic metres of crude oil in October, up 0.8 per cent from October 2014, Statistics Canada said in a report on Thursday.

The TSX was weaker in early activity, down 35.62 points at 8:50 a.m. CST to sit at 12,134.79.