Canadian Business

For those of you non-Canadians who do not yet know what the “loonie” is… its the world’s best-performing major currency this year - the Canadian dollar. It rose as high as $1.0717 (U.S.) Friday from Thursday’s close of $1.0512. It settled Friday’s session at $1.0704, up 1.92 cents. The currency has soared 25-percent this year against the greenback — and almost 7 per cent in the past month alone. The gains are most striking against the U.S. dollar, but the loonie is also stronger against...Read Full Story

Best Buy Canada … maybe not the “best buy” after all - well, at least not in Canada. I was looking for the “best buy” on certain electronics this weekend, and found some interesting information for all Canadian shoppers. Let’s take a look at my shopping list: iPod Touch 16GB - $435.99 ; ($399.99 USD @ bestbuy.com) DVD Player - $69.99 ; ($54.99 USD…) GPS Device - $449.99 ; ($349.99 USD) 37′ LCD - $1299.00 ; ($999.99 USD) ————————————————- Total at BestBuy.ca - $2,256 CAD vs. Total...Read Full Story

The Canadian currency hit a new high Thursday, rising to a three-month high against the US dollar. Supported by steady commodity prices, the loonie - as the Canadian dollar is called - rose as high as 97.61 cents US. The loonie, which is expected to reach parity with the US dollar any time this year, has gained as the greenback has slipped on poor US retail sales data. Since sinking to 77 cents US in March 2009, the Canadian loonie has risen more than 20 percent agaisnt the US dollar. The...Read Full Story

Minera Andes (TSX:T.MAI, Stock Forum) responded Wednesday to reports that its joint venture partner in the San Jose Project, Hochschild Mining plc, had made "firm proposals" to the company for the acquisition of its 49% interest in the project or for the acquisition of all of Minera Andes' shares. Hochschild announced Tuesday that it was making an offer to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of MAI through an-all share transaction, offering 0.22 shares of Hochschild for each share...Read Full Story

Stock markets tumbled Friday as the latest batch of earnings reports and high oil prices raised concerns about U.S. economic growth, while the dollar surged to a fresh decades-old highs after data showed higher-than-expected core inflation in September. On top of that, in the back of investors’ minds was the recollection that it was the 20th anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash, when the Toronto stock market dropped 11 per cent and the Dow Jones industrials nearly 23 per cent on...Read Full Story