By MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, April 21 (MarketsFarm) – The Canadian dollar slipped below 74 United States cents on Friday morning, despite a little bit of weakness in the U.S. dollar and small upticks in crude oil.
As of 8:34 am CDT, the loonie was at US$0.7389 or C$1.3537, compared to Thursday’s close of US$0.7424 or US$1=C$1.3469. On the U.S. Dollar Index, the greenback dipped 0.111 of a point at 101.455.
Benchmark crude oil prices were slightly higher on Friday morning, despite unfavourable economic outlooks for the U.S. and Europe.
Brent crude oil added 68 cents at US$81.68 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) tacked on 77 cents at US$78.14.
Statistics Canada reported retail sales in February were down 0.2 per cent at C$66.3 billion. The federal agency’s preliminary estimate for March is a larger decrease of 1.4 per cent.
Shortly after Friday’s open the TSX/S&P Composite Index bumped up 14.39 points at 20,645.08.
Gold dropped US$16.80 at US$2,002.30 per ounce.
