Canada’s dollar fell as concern the swine flu outbreak is no longer containable and speculation some U.S. banks may fail government stress tests encouraged investors to seek the relative safety of the greenback and yen. “Risk aversion continued to dominate price action overnight, driven primarily by rising fears of a global swine flu pandemic,” Christian Lawrence, a currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in London, wrote in a note to clients today. “In line with this, low yielders outperformed high yielders.” The Canadian dollar weakened for a second day, declining 0.4 percent to C$1.2251 per U.S. dollar at 8:08 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.2207 yesterday, when it depreciated 0.9 percent. One Canadian dollar buys 81.63 U.S. cents. The World Health Organization raised its alarm level yesterday for the swine flu, a respiratory disease that’s caused by a type-A influenza virus. It has killed as many as 152 people in Mexico and struck 40 people in the U.S. and 8 in Canada.

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