By Nicole Strandlund Business Edge

(Street Life is a regular feature that profiles what's playing in the stock market.)

Act I: Loonie blues

* The player: Canadian National Railway (TSX:CNR)

* Action: Down six per cent, or $3.54, in a month (from $55.16 Sept. 21)

* Recent price: $51.62

* 52-week high/low: $61/48.89 Canadian cross-border shoppers and travellers may be loving the loonie's scramble over the U.S. dollar, but the soaring buck is causing trouble for more than one Canadian company.

CN Rail partly blamed its 13-per-cent drop in forest products on the high dollar, as well as on weaker market conditions, mill closures and lower fuel surcharge revenue.

CN's profit of $485 million for Q3 was down two per cent from the same period last year and the company warned the strong dollar will continue to impact CN's business and customers in the coming months.

RBC Dominion Securities has also dropped price targets for many companies, including Aastra Technologies Ltd. (TSX:AAH), which generates most of its communication networks revenue in Europe, and Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (TSX:MFI), which is hurt by the dollar in the international fresh pork market.

Act II: New 'Borne identity

n The player: Fairborne Energy Trust (TSX:FEL.UN)

* Action: Down 10 per cent, or $0.70, in a week (from $7.11 Oct. 17)

* Recent price: $6.41

* 52-week high/low: $13.74/6.00 Sometimes it's not good to be regular.

Shareholders weren't impressed when Calgary-based Fairborne Energy Trust announced its intention to convert into a regular company.

Current production for Fairborne is 13,100 boe/d, but the company intends to increase its reserves, production and cashflow by developing some of its 233,500 net acres of undeveloped land.

To finance the re-org, U.S.-based private equity fund Denham Commodity Partners Fund IV LP ponied up $100 million (in the form of $7.45 per share for about 13.4 million common shares of the new corporation).

Unit prices, however, have tumbled from highs a year ago over $13, and hit a new 52-week low of $6 on Oct. 22.

Act III: Good medicine

* The player: Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (TSX:ASV)

* Action: Up 19 per cent, or $3.94, in a month (from $21.08 Sept. 21)

* Recent price: $25.02

* 52-week high/low: $26.34/16.69 What's good for one might be good for another: That was the thinking six years ago when Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corp. was formed and now the founders are taking their idea all the way to the bank.

The Victoria-based company came on the scene with the intention of finding new uses for drugs already on the market; if a drug could treat one specific disease, perhaps it could also treat another less-common condition.

The company made good money in 2003 when it signed a deal with Roche AG for a drug that fights rejection after organ transplant, but can also be used to treat auto-immune diseases such as lupus.

But recently, initial investors nearly doubled their ante when Aspreva announced its sale to Swiss biotech giant Galenica Group for $26 a share, or US$915 million. Aspreva shares leaped 16 per cent, or $3.44 ($21.52 to $24.96) the day of the announcement, and are once again approaching their 52-week high levels.

Act IV: Suede operator

* The player: Danier Leather (TSX:DL)

* Action: Up 11 per cent, or $1.08, in a month (from $9.40 Sept. 21)

* Recent price: $10.48

* 52-week high/low: $10.75/5.39 A leather and suede retailer stitched its way back up the charts after winning a court ruling and announcing positive financials.

Danier Leather Inc. was halted for trading pending a court ruling, but came out to climb 5.5 per cent when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the company's favour, clearing the retailer of misleading investors in an IPO in 1998.

Back then, the company didn't warn investors when warm weather caused the company to revise its sales forecast, but the court ruled that was not a material change, so the company was not obligated to disclose.

On thin trading, Danier shares popped up on the news, and the company released quarterly financials that included an opening of a new store in Saskatoon, $22 million in sales (up slightly less than one per cent over the same period in the previous year), and net earnings of $9.8 million (compared to a loss of $3.7 million the same quarter the year before).

NOTE: The above is not intended as investment advice to buy or sell any mentioned securities. Investors should do due diligence before investing. Quotes are based on results through Oct. 22, 2007.

(Nicole Strandlund can be reached at nicole@businessedge.ca)