By Chris Fournier Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s dollar touched a six-week high against its U.S. counterpart as global stocks climbed and oil exceeded $71 a barrel. “The market is focused on risk parameters,” said Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange in Toronto at National Bank of Canada. “Oil is still trading at $70, which is bullish. Equities are stronger. The U.S. dollar is weaker across the board. It’s all contributing to an appetite for risk, which is contributing to a stronger loonie.” The Canadian currency, nicknamed the loonie, advanced as much as 0.6 percent to C$1.0655 per U.S. dollar, the strongest since Aug. 4, before trading little changed at C$1.0713 at 10:30 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.0724 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 93.35 U.S. cents. U.S. consumer prices rose last month, the Labor Department said in Washington, encouraging investors to buy riskier assets. Prices advanced 0.4 percent after no change in July. The median forecast of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 0.3 percent increase. U.S. industrial production rose 0.8 percent in August, the Federal Reserve said, more than the 0.6 percent gain forecast in another Bloomberg survey. Canadian factory sales advanced 5.5 percent to C$41.4 billion ($38.7 billion) in July, the fastest gain since 1997, a Statistics Canada report in Ottawa showed today. Automotive output jumped 48 percent to C$3.3 billion. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey was for a 2.5 percent rise. Parity With Greenback Canada’s dollar will reach par with its U.S. counterpart in six months to a year as the nation’s economy improves and its central bank refrains from weakening the currency, according to Barclays Capital Inc. “Now we think that we are past the worst of the Canadian downturn and that upside surprises are more likely,” Steven Englander, chief currency strategist, and analyst Aroop Chatterjee wrote in a report yesterday. “We feel that the Bank of Canada is confident enough about the recovery to be more relaxed about Canadian dollar appreciation.” The dollars of New Zealand and Australia, which like Canada’s rise and fall with stocks and commodity prices, outperformed all of the 16 most-traded currencies tracked by Bloomberg, rising 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent respectively. The U.S. dollar lagged behind 13 of the 16. The MSCI World Index, a measure of stocks in 23 developed markets, rose 0.9 percent and touched an 11-month high. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.3 percent. Crude oil for October delivery rose as much as 0.7 percent to $71.42 a barrel in New York before trading at $70.60. Crude is the nation’s biggest export. Canada will auction C$3 billion of 1.25 percent securities maturing in December 2011. The results of the sale will be available on the Bank of Canada’s Web site by 12:05 p.m. New York time.

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