Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, February 25 The Canadian dollar strengthened against its US counterpart on Thursday.

Analysts say the loonie has likely hit its lows, and is now bouncing with the reduced likelihood of a US Federal Reserve interest rate increase, and bottoming crude oil futures.

At 8:50 a.m. CST the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7342 or C$1.3620 which compares with Wednesday’s North American close of US$0.7306, or C$1.3687.

In Canadian domestic data, corporations earned C$77.4 billion in operating profits in the fourth quarter, down 3.1 per cent from the previous quarter. The decrease was driven by a C$2.4 billion decline in profits in the financial sector, while profits among non-financial enterprises fell by C$104 million, Statistics Canada said in a report on Thursday.

The TSX was weaker in early activity, down 33.24 points at 8:50 a.m. CST to sit at 12,707.03.