Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, February 22 The Canadian dollar strengthened against its US counterpart on Monday, as crude oil futures gained ground.

At 8:45 a.m. CST the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7300 or C$1.3699 which compares with Friday’s North American close of US$0.7263, or C$1.3769.

At 8:45 a.m., New York Mercantile crude oil futures had gained US$1.76 to sit at US$33.51 a barrel, propped up by a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA expects US shale production to drop off in 2016 and 2017.

In Canadian domestic data, natural gas utilities received 13.7 billion cubic metres of total marketable gas in December, down 1.4 per cent from the same month in 2014, Statistics Canada said in a report on Monday.

The TSX was stronger in early activity, up 159.6 points at 8:45 a.m. CST to sit at 12,972.95.