BLBG: Canada’s Currency Is Little Changed as Crude Oil Declines
Canada’s currency was little changed as crude oil fell and futures indicated U.S. stock indexes may open flat.
“The market is waiting for the U.S. open, to see where stocks are going to go,” said Christian Lawrence, a currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in London. “I continue to see foreign-exchange trading on the back of risk appetite.”
The Canadian currency, known as the loonie, rose 0.2 percent to C$1.2367 per U.S. dollar at 8:06 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.2396 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 80.86 U.S. cents.
The loonie strengthened 2.4 percent in the previous two sessions after the Federal Reserve’s plan to buy longer-term treasuries sparked a rally in commodities, which account for about half of Canada’s export revenue.
Crude oil dropped 1.9 percent. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.3 percent, after dropping as much as 1.2 percent earlier. The MSCI World Index today fell 0.5 percent, snuffing out an eight-session streak of gains.
Retail sales rose in January by 1 percent, after falling 5.4 percent in the prior month, according to the median estimate of 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Statistics Canada will release the reports at 8:30 a.m. in Ottawa.
