Canada’s dollar rose for a third consecutive day against its U.S. counterpart as crude oil advanced after dropping last week the most since December 2008. The loonie, as the Canadian currency is also known for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, climbed against the yen and Swiss franc as a rally in commodities and U.S. stocks encouraged demand for higher-yielding assets. “One needs only look at commodities for the suggestion Canada’s dollar is rising today,” Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada, said by phone from Toronto. “Energy, metals, agricultural products, they’re all rising and taking commodity currencies along for the ride.” The loonie advanced 0.5 percent to 95.68 cents versus the greenback at 5 p.m. in Toronto, from 96.18 cents yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0452. The loonie touched 94.46 cents on April 29, the strongest level since November 2007. The Canadian dollar advanced 1.2 percent to 84.53 yen and gained 1.5 percent to 91.94 centimes against the Swiss franc. Crude oil, Canada’s biggest export, climbed to a four-day high as concern increased that flooding of the Mississippi River will disrupt refineries. Crude for June delivery increased 0.8 percent to $103.41 a barrel. “Markets are watching closely what’s transpiring with oil for the Canadian dollar,” said Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at the capital markets unit of Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto. Gain in Gold Gold futures rose 0.2 percent to $1,516.28 an ounce. Wheat futures climbed 1 percent to settle at $7.9875 a bushel after touching $8.165, the highest level since May 2. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 0.8 percent. Canadian government bonds fell today, pushing the 10-year yield up five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 3.23 percent. The price of the 3.25 percent security maturing in June 2021 declined 42 cents to C$100.16. Yields on 10-year U.S. and Canadian government securities are converging for the first time since December in a sign investors expect the selloff in global commodities will keep the Bank of Canada on hold longer. Treasury notes maturing in 2021 yield 3.21 percent, five basis points less than the equivalent-maturity Canadian debt. They yielded 25 basis points more than Canadian securities as recently as Feb. 8. One-month bankers’ acceptances, a measure of interest-rate expectations, were at the lowest level in almost two months. Interest-Rate View The June 2011 bankers’ acceptances contract yielded 1.33 percent, compared with 1.35 percent a week ago. So-called Bax contracts average about 18 basis points above the central bank’s overnight target, Bloomberg data since 1992 show. Economists expect the central bank’s target rate for overnight lending between banks to rise to 1.50 percent from 1 percent by the end of the third quarter, according to the median forecast of 20 economists in a Bloomberg News survey, compared with an outlook for a 1.75 percent rate in March. Canadian bonds have rallied less than U.S. debt after crude oil tumbled last week, meaning inflation may be less of a concern for the Bank of Canada. Policy makers next meet May 31 to determine interest rates. To contact the reporter for 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

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