Canadian dollar and business outlook

WINNIPEG, April 4 The Canadian dollar weakened against its US counterpart on Monday, tracking losses in crude oil.

Crude oil futures fell in early activity on Monday, as the likelihood of producing countries agreeing to a freeze continued to fade, which in turn pressured the commodity-linked loonie.

At 8:42 a.m. CDT, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7670 or C$1.3038 which compares with Friday’s North American close of US$0.7684, or C$1.3014.

In Canadian domestic data, lumber production by sawmills increased 4.2 per cent from December to 5,526.7 thousand cubic metres in January. Compared with January 2015, lumber production rose 14 per cent, Statistics Canada said in a report on Monday.

The TSX was weaker in early activity, down 52.83 points at 8:42 a.m. CDT to sit at 13,387.61.