BLBG: Canada’s Dollar Falls as Stock Drop Spurs Demand for Haven
Canada’s dollar dropped for a second day as an index of global equities slid and commodities such as crude oil, copper and aluminum declined, spurring demand for the U.S. dollar as a haven.
“The risk rally has begun to stutter more earnestly,” Citigroup Inc. strategists Todd Elmer in New York and Michael Hart and Jim McCormick in London wrote in a research note today. “We retain a positive structural view of the Canadian dollar but think that recent gains may be somewhat stretched in light of more mixed data flow.”
The Canadian currency weakened 0.1 percent to C$1.1756 per U.S. dollar at 7:51 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.1741 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 85.06 U.S. cents. Canada’s currency gained 11 percent against the greenback since reaching a 54- month low on March 9.
The MSCI World Index, a gauge of equities in 23 developed nations, dropped 0.8 percent, the fourth straight decline. Crude oil for June delivery dropped 1.8 percent to $56.99 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.