By Allison Bennett Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s dollar climbed from a six- week low versus its U.S. counterpart as equities and crude oil advanced, making currencies linked to economic growth more attractive to investors. Government bonds dropped. The currency, nicknamed the loonie for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, also appreciated for the first time in five days on speculation its 1.6 percent decrease in January will be hard to sustain. It gained today versus 9 of its 16 most-traded counterparts tracked by Bloomberg, increasing versus the euro and yen. “The market is buying risk today, and it’s buying correlated currencies against the dollar and the yen,” said Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada. “The middling landscape of the Canadian dollar speaks to the traditional risk-on, risk-off sentiment.” The Canadian dollar gained 0.8 percent to C$1.0617 per U.S. dollar at 4:02 p.m. in Toronto, from C$1.0704 on Jan. 29. One Canadian dollar buys 94.19 U.S. cents. It touched C$1.0722, the weakest since Dec. 18. The loonie advanced 0.3 percent to C$1.4803 per euro and gained 1.2 percent to 85.32 yen. The seven-day relative strength index of the Canadian dollar was 18.81 on Jan. 29, the lowest since October 2008. Readings below 30 indicate a currency may recover. The loonie tends to track stocks and commodities. The 30-day correlation coefficient is 0.62 with crude oil and 0.60 with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. A reading of 1 would mean they move in lockstep. Higher Crude Oil Crude oil for March delivery gained 2.8 percent to $74.92 a barrel. The S&P 500 Index added 1.4 percent as Exxon Mobil Corp. reported more profit than analysts estimated on average. The S&P/TSX Composite Index, Canada’s benchmark for equities, increased 1.9 percent. Government bonds fell, pushing the yield on Canada’s 10- year security up three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 3.39 percent. The price of the 3.75 percent security due in June 2019 lost 24 cents to C$102.93. The yield reached 3.29 percent on Jan. 27, the lowest level since Dec. 9. The loonie posted in January its biggest monthly drop since falling 6.1 percent in June, weakening as traders bought the U.S. dollar to hedge against losses in stocks and commodities. Analysts said the Canadian dollar may resume its decline before this week’s U.S. payrolls report, expected to show employers in the world’s largest economy added jobs last month. “If U.S. data come out strong, we could see a strong U.S. dollar, helping restrain any Canadian dollar strength,” said Sacha Tihanyi a currency strategist in Toronto at Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-largest lender. “U.S. unemployment numbers are what most people are watching.” Employers in the U.S. added 10,000 jobs in January after an unexpected elimination of 85,000 positions in the previous month, according to the median forecast of 75 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Canada’s employment increased last month by 15,000 jobs, according to the median forecast in a separate survey. Both reports are due Feb. 5. To contact the reporter on this story: Allison Bennett in New York at abennett23@bloomberg.net

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