TORONTO - Canada’s dollar raced to its highest level in five weeks against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, lifted by stronger oil and bullion prices and as world equities headed toward a new 2009 peak.
The Canadian unit shot up as high as C$1.0674 to the U.S. dollar, or 93.69 U.S. cents, its strongest showing since early August as oil climbed above $69 a barrel ahead of an OPEC meeting, and gold prices pierced the $1,000 an ounce level.
“North America walked in and is happy to sell some U.S. dollars,” said J.P. Blais, vice president foreign exchange products at BMO Capital Markets.
“With gold being up this morning and equity futures being up also I think the Canadian dollar is a bit stronger.”
Gold’s rise was helped higher by a weak U.S. dollar, which fell to its lowest in almost a year against a basket of major currencies on Tuesday in part on fresh concern about the dollar’s long-term status as the world’s reserve currency.
At 7:30 a.m. (1130 GMT), the Canadian dollar was at C$1.0700 to the U.S. dollar, or 93.46 U.S. cents, up from C$1.0867 to the U.S. dollar, or 92.02 U.S. cents, at Friday’s close, boosted by upbeat Canadian and U.S. jobs data that helped spark demand for riskier assets. The unit ended the week with a gain of 0.5 percent.
Canadian bond prices were mostly higher across the curve, following U.S. Treasury prices up in Europe but markets were wary ahead of fresh government debt supply.
