Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, April 29 The Canadian dollar strengthened against its US counterpart on Friday as crude oil futures gained and moderate US data held the greenback down.

At 8:45 a.m. CDT, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7999 or C$1.2502 which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$0.7969, or C$1.2549.

New York Mercantile crude oil futures had gained US$0.36 to sit at US$46.39 a barrel, as of 8:45 CDT.

In Canadian domestic data, after rising for four consecutive months, real gross domestic product edged down 0.1 per cent in February. The output of goods-producing industries declined in February, while the output of service-producing industries was essentially unchanged, Statistics Canada said in a report on Friday.

The TSX was stronger in early activity, up 54.10 points at 8:45
a.m. CDT to sit at 13,940.53.