WSJ: Canadian Dollar Up Vs US Dollar, Down Sharply Vs Australian Dollar
By Don Curren
TORONTO--The Canadian dollar is higher against the U.S. dollar Wednesday morning, but down sharply against the Australian and New Zealand dollars as those currencies rebound from recent sharp declines.
The U.S. dollar is at C$1.0161 Wednesday morning, from C$1.0188 late Tuesday, according to data provider CQG.
The Australian dollar is at C$0.9675 from C$0.9606 and the New Zealand currency at C$0.8120 from C$0.8027.
The U.S./Canadian dollar pair continues to be something of a bystander with regards to the broad themes in currency markets, which focused on emerging market currencies and the other "commodity currencies" Wednesday.
"It's really sort of caught in the crossfire, once again," said Adam Cole, chief currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in London.
"What we're seeing generally in markets is a fairly sizeable bounce in the currencies that have fallen most over the last month," he said.
As the Canadian dollar escaped the worst of the selling pressure on the Australian and New Zealand dollars, it is now showing only modest momentum compared to those units.
"I don't think there's much of a fundamental story out there, to be honest. It's really just a price correction," Mr. Cole said.
Looking forward, he sees the Australian dollar resuming its slump against its Canadian equivalent. There's no apparent reason for the liquidation of Australian holdings that has driven that currency's decline to abate, he said.
Mr. Cole expects the U.S./Canadian dollar pair to remain range bound, and perhaps to slip to the bottom or its trading range ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week.
