By Glen Hallick
Glacier FarmMedia – The Canadian dollar was virtually unchanged on Friday morning, getting little direction from its United States counterpart and crude oil.
As of 8:37 am CST, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7299 or US$1=C$1.3701, compared to Thursday’s close of US$0.7301 or US$1=C$1.3696.
On the U.S. Dollar Index, the greenback inched up on 0.010 of a point at 97.865.
Benchmark crude oil prices dipped on Friday morning, despite U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to attack Iran within the next 10 days.
West Texas Intermediate gave up 29 cents at US$66.14 per barrel and Brent crude lost 43 cents at US$71.23.
Statistics Canada reported on Friday that December retail sales were down 0.4 per cent at C$70 billion. Also, StatCan said the industrial product price index rose 2.7 per cent in January, and the raw materials price index grew 7.7 per cent last month.
In morning activity on Friday, the TSX/S&P Composite Index nudged up 20.53 points at 33,615.51.
Gold added US$62.20 at US$5,059.60 per ounce.
