Canadian Dollar and Business Outlook: Loonie virtually unchanged

By Glen Hallick

Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm – The Canadian dollar held firm on Friday morning following the latest retail sales report from Statistics Canada.

As of 8:39 am CST, the loonie was at US$0.7050 or US$1=C$1.4185 compared to Thursday’s close of US$0.7048 or US$1=C$1.4188. On the United States Dollar Index, the greenback climbed 0.241 of a point at 106.505.

StatCan said retail sales in December were up 2.5 per cent at C$69.6 billion, but outlook for January indicated a drop of 0.4 per cent as likely.

Benchmark crude oil prices stepped back on Friday morning as larger U.S. stockpiles and Kazakhstan pumping more oil weighed on values.

Brent crude oil gave up 91 cents at US$75572 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate lost US$1.01 cents at US$71.47.

The TSX/S&P Composite Index slipped 67.83 points at 25,446.25.

Gold was down US$6.80 at US$2,949.30 per ounce.