Canadian Financial Close: C$ firms in pre-weekend trade

Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm — The Canadian dollar was slightly firmer on Friday.

The Canadian dollar settled at US$0.7213 or US$1=C$1.3863, which compares with Thursday’s close of US$0.7209 or US$1=C$1.3872.

Canadian retail sales decreased by 0.4 per cent in February to C$69.3 billion, reported Statistics Canada. However, core retail sales were up 0.5 per cent on the month. Advanced data for March suggests a 0.7 per cent increase in overall retail sales.

Canada’s residential building and non-residential building construction price indexes were both up by 0.8 per cent in the first quarter, reported StatCan.

Crude oil was stronger, with West Texas crude oil up by 0.70 per cent at US$63.23 per barrel.

The TSX Composite Index dipped 17.02 points to close at 24,710.51 points.