Canada’s dollar strengthened against most major currencies a day after the price of crude oil, the nation’s largest export, touched a 29-month high. The loonie, as the currency is nicknamed for the image of the aquatic bid on the C$1 coin, rose toward its highest level versus its U.S. counterpart since November 2007, reached on March 1. The currency gained against 14 of its 16 most-traded counterparts tracked by Bloomberg as Canadian housing starts rose more than forecast. “People are happy to be long the Canadian dollar because of oil,” said John Curran, a senior vice president in Toronto at CanadianForex Ltd., an online foreign-exchange dealer. A long position is a bet an asset will increase in value. The loonie appreciated 0.2 percent to 97.14 cents per U.S. dollar at 5:00 p.m. in Toronto, from 97.33 yesterday. It touched 96.84 cents on March 1, the strongest level since November 2007. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0294. Crude oil for April delivery fell as much as 2 percent to $103.33 a barrel after touching $106.95 yesterday, the highest level since September 2008. The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index slid 0.6 percent. Government bonds fell, pushing the yield on the 10-year benchmark up five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 3.40 percent. The price of the 3.50 percent security maturing in June 2020 decreased 39 cents to C$100.81. Loonie Versus Euro The Canadian dollar appreciated 0.8 percent to C$1.3508 versus the euro, from 1.3595 yesterday, as concern European leaders won’t agree on a solution to the sovereign-debt crisis damped appetite for the region’s assets. Financing costs rose as Greece sold 1.6 billion euros ($2.3 billion) of treasury bills a day after its credit rating was cut by Moody’s Investors Service. “The only thing aiding the loonie is the crosses,” said Dean Popplewell, an analyst at the online foreign-exchange trading firm Oanda Corp. in Toronto, referring to currency pairs not involving the U.S. dollar. Canadian housing starts rose in February, led by urban projects such as apartments and condominiums, according to the federal government’s housing agency. The annual pace of home starts rose 6.6 percent to 181,900 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Ottawa-based Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. said on its website today. Economists projected a reading of 174,000, according to the median forecast of 21 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. OPEC members are discussing whether to hold an emergency meeting on possibly increasing oil output, Sheikh Ahmad al- Abdullah, Kuwait’s oil minister, told reporters. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members have pledged to ensure adequate supply to the market as violence in Libya cuts output from Africa’s third- largest crude producer. To contact the reporter on this story: Alexandra Harris in New York at Aharris48@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

Source