Canada’s currency was little changed as a rally in global stocks fizzled and crude oil fell back below $47, diminishing the allure of commodity-linked currencies. “If the stocks give back more ground today, I expect the Canadian dollar to lose some ground as well,” said Steven Butler, director of foreign-exchange trading in Toronto at Scotia Capital Inc., a unit of Canada’s third-largest bank. “This bull rally in a bear market remains very fragile.” The currency pared earlier losses after a government report showed housing starts in the U.S. unexpectedly surged in February from a record low on a rebound in multi-family projects. Work began on 583,000 homes at an annual rate, a 22 percent increase from January that was the biggest jump since 1990, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The Canadian dollar, known as the loonie, traded at C$1.2722 per U.S. dollar at 8:40 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.2719 yesterday. It earlier declined as much as 0.4 percent. One Canadian dollar buys 78.61 U.S. cents. After reaching C$1.3064 on an intraday basis on March 9, a four-year low, the Canadian dollar has strengthened as investors venture out of traditional safe havens such as the U.S. dollar and the yen into higher-yielding assets such as equities and commodities. Canada’s currency will appreciate to C$1.24 against the U.S. dollar by the end of the year, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 40 economists. The yield on the two-year government bond rose one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 0.99 percent. The 2.75 percent security due in December 2010 fell 1 cent to C$102.978.

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