BLBG:Canadian Dollar Falls as Political Turmoil Reduces Risk Appetite
Canada’s dollar dropped amid lower stocks and commodities as Greece’s lawmakers’ failure to form a government spurred concern the nation may be the first member state to exit the euro.
Canada’s currency rose last week against all of its 16 most-traded peers except the yen and the U.S. dollar after employment climbed almost six times more than economists forecast, fueling bets the central bank will be the first in the Group of Seven nations to raise interest rates.
“We came out of the weekend with no deal done in Greece,” said Boris Schlossberg, director of research at online currency trader GFT Forex, by phone from New York. “I don’t expect the Canadian dollar to strengthen against the U.S. dollar, but to stay relatively firm against everybody else, simply because the dollar is naturally going to get flight-to-safety flows as the crisis deepens.”
Canada’s currency, nicknamed the loonie, fell 0.3 percent to C$1.0038 per U.S. dollar at 7:56 a.m. in Toronto. One Canadian dollar buys 99.62 U.S. cents.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Halifax at cfournier3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net
