Canada’s dollar was little changed as an index of global stocks slid and commodities such as crude oil, copper and aluminum declined, damping a rally in higher- yielding currencies. “The rally in the Canadian dollar was based on optimism that was getting ahead of fundamentals,” said Krishen Rangasamy, an economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Toronto. “Oil prices are falling. Oil prices tend to rise and fall along with optimism over global growth.” The Canadian currency traded at C$1.1736 per U.S. dollar at 10:05 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.1741 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 85.21 U.S. cents. Canada’s currency gained 11 percent against the greenback since reaching a 54-month low on March 9. The MSCI World Index, a gauge of stocks in 23 developed nations, declined 0.4 percent, the fourth straight decline. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fluctuated between gains and losses. Crude oil for June delivery fell as much as 2.5 percent to $56.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. “The risk rally has begun to stutter more earnestly,” Citigroup Inc. strategists Todd Elmer in New York and Michael Hart and Jim McCormick in London wrote in a research note today. “We retain a positive structural view of the Canadian dollar but think that recent gains may be somewhat stretched in light of more mixed data flow.”

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