By David George-Cosh Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES TORONTO (Dow Jones)--The Canadian dollar continued to weaken on Friday, touching a fresh intraday low, after a poor reading of U.S. new home sales sent investors back into the safe haven of the greenback. The U.S. dollar was recently at C$1.0024, from C$1.0007 right before the U.S. home sales and C$0.9993 late Thursday, according to data provider CQG. It touched a session high at 1.0035, its highest level in almost a month, before subsiding slightly. U.S. home sales fell for the second consecutive month in February, dropping 1.6% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 313,000, failing to meet consensus targets of a 1.2% climb to an annual rate of 325,000. The decline in home sales suggested the U.S. economy remains shaky and caused a flight to the safety of the U.S. dollar against other major currencies including the euro, Canadian dollar and the Norwegian krona. The Canadian dollar had moved lower earlier on Friday despite Canada's core consumer price index having climbed to an annual rate of 2.3% in February, slightly surpassing expectations of a 2.2% gain. The loonie briefly gained but quickly slid back into negative territory after crude prices surged more than 3% after Iran said its oil exports declined by 300,000 barrels per day in March.

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