Canada’s dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart for the first time in six days as traders speculated recent gains may be overdone before next week’s Bank of Canada meeting on monetary policy. “We’re less than a week away from the Canadian central bank making a decision on interest rates, and people are thinking that we’ve maybe gone too far with these recent gains, which is why we’re seeing a short-term pull-back,” said David Watt, senior currency strategist in Toronto at RBC Capital Markets, a unit of Canada’s biggest bank. Canada’s dollar earlier touched C$1.0207, the strongest level since July 29, 2008, capping a rally spurred by crude oil flirting with $76 a barrel and a slumping U.S. dollar. Canada is the biggest supplier of energy products to the U.S. The Canadian currency dropped 1.1 percent to C$1.0346 per U.S. dollar at 8:07 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.0236 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 96.55 U.S. cents. Crude oil for November delivery traded 30 cents lower at $74.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after jumping to $75.96. Prices gained 4.4 percent this week. “This isn’t the start of a sustained pull-back” in the Canadian dollar, Watt said. “Oil prices and commodities are still strong. I don’t think there will be a dramatic sell-off in the Canadian dollar unless there is a definitive bounce in the U.S. dollar, or if the Bank of Canada does something to inject more concern into bullish Canadian dollar sentiment.” Canada’s central bank meets Oct. 20 to determine interest rates. All 16 economists in a Bloomberg survey expect policy makers to keep the target lending rate at 0.25 percent.

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