By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, February 19 The Canadian dollar lost ground against its US counterpart on Friday, as retail sales fizzled and crude oil futures weakened.
At 8:48 a.m. CST the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7235 or C$1.3822 which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$0.7273, or C$1.3749.
At 8:48 a.m., New York Mercantile crude oil futures had lost US$1.00 to sit at US$31.93 a barrel, but analysts expect crude oil futures are on track to see their first week of gains in February.
In Canadian domestic data, following a 1.7 per cent rise in November, retail sales fell 2.2 per cent to C$43.2 billion in December. Declines were widespread as lower sales were reported in 10 of 11 subsectors, representing 97 per cent of retail trade, Statistics Canada said in a report on Friday.
The TSX was weaker in early activity, down 109.7 points at 8:48 a.m. CST to sit at 12,821.71.
