Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, December 14 – The Canadian dollar advanced against its US counterpart in early activity on Wednesday.

US traders were reluctant to make any big moves ahead of an announcement from the US Federal Reserve Wednesday afternoon. The Fed is largely expected to raise interest rates before the end of the year.

At 8:38 CST Wednesday, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7626 or US$=C$1.3113, which compares with Tuesday’s North American close of US$0.7614 or US$1=C$1.3133.

In Canadian domestic data, national wealth, the total value of non-financial assets in the Canadian economy, rose 1.4 per cent to C$9,730 billion at the end of the third quarter. The main contributor to the gain was a 1.4 per cent increase in the value of real estate, Statistics Canada said in a report on Wednesday.

The TSX was down 20.54 points at 8:38 CST Wednesday morning to sit at 15,364.73.