BLBG: Canadian Dollar Declines Versus Euro as Cyprus Debates Bailout
Canada’s dollar declined against the euro as Cypriot lawmakers were scheduled to debate legislation to help the country obtain a bailout and avoid a financial collapse.
The currency increased for a second day against its U.S. peer after reports yesterday showed Canadian retail sales advancing in January, a sign the economy may be recovering, and fewer Americans than forecast filed for first-time jobless claims. The U.S. is Canada’s biggest trading partner. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said yesterday he plans to eliminate the country’s deficit before the next election in 2015. Oil, the nation’s largest export, rose.
“The correlation between the Canadian dollar and the euro has strengthened on a short-term basis, and that signals the importance of Cyprus for the Canadian dollar,” Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at the Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto, said by phone.
The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is known for the image of the waterfowl on the C$1 coin, declined 0.3 percent to C$1.3267 versus the shared currency at 8:17 a.m. in Toronto. It rose 0.1 percent to C$1.0241 per U.S. dollar after gaining as much as 0.6 percent yesterday, the most since March 14. One loonie buys 97.65 U.S. cents.
To contact the reporter on this story: Taylor Tepper in New York at ttepper2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net