BLBG: Canadian Dollar Climbs as European Data Drives Risk Rally
The Canadian dollar rose against its U.S. counterpart as a European purchasing managers’ index showed services output in the region shrank less than initially estimated, boosting demand for riskier assets.
The currency rose against the majority of its most-traded counterparts after an index based on a survey of purchasing managers in Europe’s services industry rose to 48.6 from 47.8 in December, London-based Markit Economics Ltd. said in a report today. That’s above an initial estimate of 48.3 published on Jan. 24. Futures on crude oil, Canada’s largest export, rose.
“The general characterization that we’re coming into a risk-on day is correct,” Mazen Issa, Canada macro strategist at Toronto-Dominion Bank’s TD Securities, said by phone from Toronto. “Just looking at some of the data overnight, there’s some modest positives and then at the same time we did have a fairly sharp selloff yesterday, so I think it’s just a bit of a bounce back.”
The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is known for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, rose 0.1 percent to 99.83 cents per U.S. dollar at 8:05 a.m. in Toronto. One loonie buys $1.0017.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Altstedter in Toronto at aaltstedter@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net
