Canada’s dollar rose for a third day against the U.S. dollar as global stocks and crude oil gained, spurring investors toward such riskier assets as commodity currencies. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 1.6 percent after Wells Fargo & Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. issued positive guidance for first-quarter earnings. Crude oil advanced for a second day. Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 8 percent in February from 7.7 percent. “Generally the fall in commodity prices seems to have stopped,” said Aaron Fennell, a Toronto-based futures and currency broker at MF Global Canada Co., a unit of MF Global Ltd. “In terms of risk appetite, traders seem to be more willing to look for the bottom in the various commodity markets. Many traders are planning their strategies for how they want to be positioned as we come out of the recession.” The Canadian dollar traded at C$1.2297 per U.S. dollar at 8:24 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.2364 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 81.21 U.S. cents. The Canadian dollar tends to track fluctuations in stocks and commodity prices. After reaching a four-year low of C$1.3064 on March 9, the loonie appreciated as investors ventured out of haven currencies such as the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen. They purchased riskier assets such as stocks and commodity-linked currencies. Canadian employers pared a net 61,300 workers, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted employment would fall by 50,000 and the jobless rate would rise to 8 percent, the median of 23 estimates. Canada’s dollar will weaken to C$1.26 against its counterpart by the end of this quarter, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 37 economists.

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