Canada’s dollar fluctuated against its U.S. counterpart as its qualities as a haven countered speculation global growth may suffer as Europe’s debt crisis escalates and the U.S. recovery stumbles. The loonie, as the Canadian currency is also known, rose against the euro, which fell to a record low against the franc and breached an important technical barrier versus the U.S. dollar. A meeting of European Union finance ministers yesterday failed to quell the region’s escalating debt crisis. “There’s a ‘safe-haven lite’ association with the Canadian dollar,” Shaun Osborne , chief currency strategist at Toronto- Dominion Bank’s TD Securities unit, said by phone from Toronto. “The Canadian economy is still relatively well positioned. We still expect rate increases to come somewhere down the road.” The Canadian currency was little changed at 96.92 cents per U.S. dollar at 9:05 a.m. in Toronto, compared with 96.88 cents yesterday. It rose as much as 0.6 percent to C$1.351 per euro, the strongest since March 14. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0318. The loonie, which earlier dropped as much as 0.9 percent against the greenback, erased that loss after a report showed the U.S. trade deficit widened in May to the highest level in almost three years, reflecting a surge in crude oil imports. The gap grew 15 percent to $50.2 billion, exceeding all forecasts of 73 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and the biggest since October 2008, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Exports held near April’s record. “The U.S. dollar sold off on the worse-than-expected data,” said Osborne. “The larger deficit may see U.S. growth expectations nudged lower still.” To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Halifax, Nova Scotia at cfournier3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

Source