BS: Canada’s Dollar Falls From Almost Three-Week High Before BOC
Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s dollar dropped from almost the highest level in more than three weeks versus its U.S. counterpart before central-bank policy makers meet tomorrow to determine interest rates.
The loonie slid 0.1 percent on Dec. 3 after the government reported that employers added fewer jobs in November than economists forecast. All 24 economists in a Bloomberg survey expect the Bank of Canada’s Governor Mark Carney to refrain from increasing borrowing costs.
“I don’t see too much happening in the loonie ahead of tomorrow,” Firas Askari, head currency trader in Toronto at Bank of Montreal’s BMO Capital unit, wrote via e-mail. “Even then don’t expect much unless his comments are an outlier. Nobody is expecting a move.”
The Canadian currency depreciated 0.2 percent to C$1.0064 per U.S. dollar at 8:20 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.0039 on Dec. 3, when it touched C$1.0003, the strongest level since Nov. 11. One Canadian dollar buys 99.35 U.S. cents.
The loonie, as the Canadian currency is also known for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, advanced 1.7 percent last week in its first five-day gain in four weeks over a surge in crude oil prices.
January futures on crude oil, Canada’s largest export, were little changed today at $89.27 a barrel after rising to $89.76, the highest level since October 2008.
The Bank of Canada held its target lending rate at 1 percent in October after three successive increases of a quarter-percentage point beginning June 1, citing a weaker economic outlook for the U.S., Canada’s biggest trading partner.
--Editors: Dennis Fitzgerald, Greg Storey
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Robert Burgess at bburgess@bloomberg.net
