By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, December 1 – The Canadian dollar continued to advance against its US counterpart in early activity on Thursday, propped up by strength in crude oil.
New York Mercantile crude oil futures were higher Thursday morning, supported by an OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and Russian output cut, which is bullish for the commodity-linked Canadian dollar.
However, market watchers say the cuts are not large enough to shrink the supply glut, which could limit gains in coming sessions, putting downward pressure on the Canadian dollar.
At 9:05 CST Thursday, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7480 or US$=C$1.3370, which compares with Wednesday’s North American close of US$0.7446 or US$1=C$1.3429.
In domestic data, capital expenditures for the oil and gas extraction industries totalled C$9.3 billion in the third quarter, down 29.8 per cent from the third quarter of 2015, Statistics Canada said in a report on Thursday.
The TSX was up 38.84 points at 9:05 CST Thursday morning to sit at 15,121.69.
