Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, September 19 – The Canadian dollar edged up against its US counterpart Monday morning, tracking advances in crude oil.

Crude oil prices gained in early activity, with ideas that OPEC and non-OPEC producers may reach an agreement that will add stability to oil output.

At 9:00 CDT Monday, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7601 or US$=C$1.3156, which compares with Friday’s North American close of US$0.7568 or US$1=C$1.3214.

In Canadian domestic data, consumers spent C$513.4 billion in retail stores in 2015, up 1.7 per cent from 2014. Gains were reported in 9 of 11 subsectors and in seven provinces, Statistics Canada said in a report on Monday.

The TSX was up 66.38 points at 9:00 CDT Monday morning to sit at 14,517.07.