By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, April 8 The Canadian dollar strengthened against its US counterpart on Friday, as crude oil futures gained, and data showed Canada’s economy added jobs in March.
At 8:40 a.m. CDT, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7681 or C$1.3019 which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$0.7608, or C$1.3144.
New York Mercantile crude oil futures had gained US$1.91 to sit at US$39.17 a barrel, as of 8:40 CDT.
In Canadian domestic data, after three months of little change, employment increased by 41,000, or 0.2 per cent in March, lowering the unemployment rate by 0.2 percentage points to 7.1 per cent, Statistics Canada said in a report on Friday.
The TSX was stronger in early activity, up 99.81 points at 8:40 a.m. CDT to sit at 13,366.25.
