BLBG: Canada Dollar Rises From Three-Week Low as Stocks, Oil Gain
By Chris Fournier
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s dollar advanced against its U.S. counterpart after reaching the weakest level since Oct. 5 as American stock-index futures gained and crude oil rose, making currencies tied to growth more appealing.
The Canadian dollar is headed for a 2.2 percent drop this week, the worst five-day performance since June, on concern that a stock rally is losing steam and warnings from central-bank officials that the nation’s economic recovery is jeopardized by the strength of the currency. It appreciated 13 percent this year.
Commodity-linked currencies such as Canada’s “will be more vulnerable in an environment when speculators and investors are starting to second-guess the strength of the global equity- market rally,” said Stephen Gallo, head of market analysis at Schneider Foreign Exchange in London.
Canada’s dollar appreciated as much as 0.6 percent to C$1.0747 before trading at C$1.0795 per U.S. dollar, up 0.1 percent, at 8:18 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.0811 yesterday. It earlier touched C$1.0821, the weakest since Oct. 5. One Canadian dollar purchases 92.63 U.S. cents.
The Commerce Department may say at 8:30 a.m. in Washington the U.S., Canada’s largest trading partner, emerged from a recession in the third quarter, with the economy expanding for the first time in more than a year. The department is likely to report the U.S. gross domestic product grew 3.2 percent in the quarter, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists.
The report “will set the tone,” said Steve Butler, director of foreign-exchange trading in Toronto at Scotia Capital Inc., a unit of Canada’s third- largest bank. “Month- end flows will dominate today and tomorrow,” he said.
The loonie, as Canada’s dollar is nicknamed for the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, lost 0.9 percent this month against its U.S. counterpart.