Canada’s dollar strengthened to near parity with its U.S. counterpart as stocks gained along with oil, copper and gold and as new home prices unexpectedly rose 0.1 percent in August. Canada’s currency is the best performer this week among the U.S. dollar’s 16 most-traded counterparts, approaching parity with the greenback for the first time since April 26. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said yesterday Canada will be the first Group of Seven country to balance its budget by 2015. “The risk switch is in the ‘on’ position,” Shaun Osborne, chief currency strategist at Toronto-Dominion Bank’s TD Securities unit, wrote via e-mail. “The combination of a weaker U.S. dollar and higher commodity prices put the Canadian dollar in a relatively strong position.” The currency appreciated 0.7 percent to C$1.0033 per U.S. dollar at 8:38 a.m. in Toronto. It reached C$1.0021, the strongest since April 30, from C$1.0101 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 99.70 U.S. cents. The loonie, as the currency is nicknamed, reached parity with its U.S. counterpart April 6 for the first time since July 2008 based on the prospect of higher interest rates and stronger economic growth than in the U.S. Canadian new home prices rose in August after a decline the previous month, government figures showed. The 0.1 percent advance reversed an identical loss in July, and was led by a 0.9 percent rise for Hamilton, Ontario, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists predicted the index would decline 0.1 percent, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of nine responses. The MSCI Global Index of equities advanced 0.7 percent. Crude oil for November delivery rose as much as 1.6 percent to $82.99 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

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