Canada’s currency was little changed after stocks advanced, crude oil pared losses and a government report showed January retail sales rose faster than economists expected. The Canadian dollar, known as the loonie, traded at C$1.2374 per U.S. dollar at 10:09 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.2396 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 80.81 U.S. cents. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2 percent. Crude oil for April delivery was little changed at $51.62 per barrel in New York after dropping as much as 2.3 percent. The Canadian dollar tends to track fluctuations in equity and commodity prices. Canadian retail sales increased 1.9 percent from December, almost twice as fast as forecast, to C$33.7 billion ($27.2 billion), Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists in a Bloomberg News survey expected a 1 percent gain, based on the median of 19 estimates.

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