Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, Jan. 22 The Canadian dollar was stronger Friday morning, as a rally in crude oil provided support for the energy-linked currency.

At 8:49 CST Friday morning the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7052 or C$1.4180 which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$0.7003 or C$1.4279.

The Canadian dollar gained a cent relative to its US counterpart on Thursday, and continued to strengthen on Friday as the currency corrected off of the 13-year lows hit earlier in the week.

In addition to the spillover support from crude oil, the Canadian dollar was also underpinned by some better-than-expected domestic data. Statistics Canada reported that retail sales in the country rose by 1.7 per cent in November, which was well above the 0.2 per cent predicted by average trade estimates.

In other domestic data, Canada’s Consumer Price Index rose by 1.6 per cent on an annual basis in December, which was up from 1.4 per cent the previous month.

The TSX was stronger, up 233.80 points at 8:48 CST to sit at 12,269.61.