By Chris Fournier Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s currency gained versus its U.S. counterpart after commodities including crude oil and gold advanced and the Blackberry maker Research In Motion Ltd. forecast sales and profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates. The Canadian dollar posted a second weekly loss, even as it outperformed all but one of its 16 most-traded counterparts today. The franc was best performer as the Swiss national bank refrained from selling the currency and demand for a haven rose amid reports that Iranian forces occupied an oil well yesterday in Iraqi territory. “Oil’s a lot higher, touching close to $74, so that’s helping,” said Camilla Sutton, director of currency strategy in Toronto at Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-largest lender. “The outperformance in the Canadian dollar is reasonable and should be an ongoing story in 2010. It highlights the limited sovereign risk there is in Canada; it highlights the fundamental strength that there is in Canada.” The Canadian currency, nicknamed the loonie for the image of the waterfowl on the C$1 coin, appreciated 0.5 percent to C$1.0662 per U.S. dollar at 4:44 p.m. in Toronto, after earlier gaining as much as 0.8 percent, from C$1.0711 yesterday. It weakened 0.6 percent for the week. One Canadian dollar buys 93.79 U.S. cents. The loonie pared its advance as oil and stocks trimmed earlier gains. Bonds Fall Government debt fell, with the yield on Canada’s benchmark 10-year note increasing three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 3.41 percent. The price of the 3.75 percent security due in June 2019 dropped 28 cents to C$102.76. Crude oil for January delivery gained 0.8 percent to $73.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier climbing as much as 2.8 percent amid reports of the Iranian incursion. It gained 4.9 percent this week, also helped as the Federal Reserve said on Dec. 15 that U.S. factories produced more goods in November than forecast, signaling fuel demand may rise. Crude is Canada’s biggest export. Gold for immediate delivery rose 1.3 percent to $1,112.68 an ounce. Raw materials including gold and oil account for half of Canada’s export revenue. The greenback weakened against 12 of the 16 most-traded currencies tracked by Bloomberg. It gained earlier against the euro, touching the strongest level since Sept. 4, $1.4262. Shares of Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM climbed 10 percent after the smart-phone maker said yesterday that current-quarter sales and earnings per share will be at least $4.2 billion and $1.23 respectively. Analysts predicted revenue of $4.12 billion and profit excluding some items of $1.12 a share, according to a Bloomberg survey. ‘An Outperformer’ RIM accounts for about 2.7 percent of the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index, the nation’s benchmark stock gauge, for the eighth-highest weighting. “Canada was widely considered to be an outperformer on the back of better-than-expected earnings in RIM,” said Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto. The S&P/TSX Composite gained as much as 0.8 percent before closing little changed. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 0.6 percent after falling as much as 0.2 percent and increasing 0.7 percent. Canadian wholesale sales increased 0.3 percent as weaker food and beverage purchasing tempered higher automotive sales, Statistics Canada said today. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for a 0.5 percent gain. To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net

Source