BLBG: Canada Dollar Falls to Weakest Since July as Crude Oil Declines
The Canadian Dollar touched the weakest level against its U.S. counterpart since July 5 as the price of crude oil, the nation’s biggest export, declined for a fourth day.
Futures of crude oil fell 1.3 percent to $92.37 per barrel in New York. Investors should bet against the Canadian currency versus the U.S. dollar, in what Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts in a client note called their third top-trade recommendation for 2014. So-called commodity currencies, which include the Canada’s and the Australian and New Zealand dollars also declined.
“We’ve seen some of the commodity currencies come a bit under pressure,” Sebastien Galy, a senior foreign-exchange strategist at Societe Generale SA in New York, said in a telephone interview. “Some of the energy has essentially suffered a little bit. Indeed, what you’re seeing this morning is oil is falling.”
The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is known for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, fell 0.4 percent to C$1.0584 per U.S. dollar at 9:46 a.m. in Toronto, after reaching C$1.0593. One loonie buys 94.48 U.S. cents.
The nation’s benchmark 10-year government bonds were little changed to yield 2.53 percent. The price of the 1.5 percent securities maturing in June 2023 declined 7 cents to C$91.36.
BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest asset manager, is recommending Canadian investors bet on a widening gap between short- and long-term debt in anticipation of less U.S. monetary stimulus next year.
Yield Gap
Canadian debt maturing in one to three years returned 0.87 percent since May through Nov. 25, compared to losses of 5 percent for bonds with maturities of 10 to 15 years, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show.
The Canadian dollar has lost 3.3 percent this year against nine developed-market peers tracked by the Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Index. The U.S. dollar is up 3.7 percent, while the Australian currency fell 11 percent.
“We’ve seen steady interbank buying of dollar-Canada since today’s open and that appears to be what has pushed us up here,” said George Davis, chief technical analyst for fixed-income and currency strategy in Toronto at Royal Bank of Canada. “Oil also under pressure, which is not helping.”
Oil has fluctuated as Iran and world powers consider an interim deal to set limits on its nuclear program.
Crude traders are skeptical that the accord loosening some economic sanctions against Iran in return for limiting nuclear work will lead to a surge in oil supply from what was once OPEC’s second-biggest producer.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Detrixhe in New York at jdetrixhe1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net
