Canadian Financial Close: Loonie returns above 72 U.S. cents

By Glen Hallick

Glacier Farm Media | MarketsFarm – The Canadian dollar on Friday  finally turned around to close higher, following the Statistics Canada retail sales report and that the federal government will remove some tariffs on the United States.

StatCan reported June retail sales were up 1.5 per cent at C$70.2 billion with increases in all nine sectors.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will end counter tariffs on those U.S. goods that contravene the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement. Carney said the move is to help kickstart fresh trade talks with the Trump administration.

The loonie finished at US$0.7218 or US$1=C$1.3854, compared to Thursday’s close of US$0.7196 or US$1=C$1.3897. Meanwhile, the U.S. Dollar Index dropped 0.901 of a point at 97.610.

At the Jackson Hole economic forum, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested the Fed will likely freeze its interest rates for now with cuts coming later.

Benchmark crude oil prices bumped up on Thursday, as uncertainty over proposed Russia-Ukraine-U.S. talks continued to increase.

West Texas Intermediate gained 28 cents at US$63.80 and Brent crude added 16 cents at US$67.83 per barrel.

The TSX Composite Index advanced 277.70 points on Friday to close at 28,333.13, a new all-time record high.

Gold increased US$35.60 at US$3,417.10 per ounce.