Canada’s currency was little changed against its U.S. counterpart as traders speculated Federal Reserve officials may provide guidance after today’s policy meeting on possible buys of U.S. debt to stimulate the economy. Crude oil dropped 1.2 percent and copper declined, offsetting the seventh straight advance by an index of stocks in 23 developed nations. The Canadian dollar tends to track fluctuations in the price of commodities and equities. “Generally we’ve seen a bit of scaling down in terms of risk currencies,” said Henrik Gullberg, a foreign-exchange strategist in London at Deutsche Bank AG, the world’s biggest currency trader. “That’s mainly a reflection of crude oil, but also that the market is tentative ahead of the FOMC meeting.” A Federal Open Market Committee announcement is due at 2:15 p.m. The Canadian dollar, known as the loonie, traded at C$1.2712 per U.S. dollar at 8:14 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.2701 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 78.67 U.S. cents. Canada’s currency, which depreciated a record 18 percent last year on declining demand for commodities such as crude oil, touched a four-year low last week on concern the global slowdown will worsen. The currency has rebounded since then to the highest this month as investors venture into riskier assets such as equities. The MSCI World Index rose 0.1 percent to 779.29. The Canadian dollar 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 41 economists. The yield on the two-year government bond was little changed at 1 percent. The 2.75 percent security due in December 2010 traded at C$102.93.

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