BLBG:Canadian Dollar Drops Most in Seven Weeks After Japan’s Yen Intervention
Canada’s dollar weakened by the most since June 15 after Japan sold its currency to stem gains that threatened the nation’s economic recovery, driving the greenback higher against all of its major counterparts.
The Canadian currency fell to the lowest since July 12 before a government report tomorrow that economists predict will show the nation’s employers added jobs for a fourth straight month. An index of stocks in developed nations dropped for a seventh day and crude oil prices fell below $91 a barrel.
“The Canadian dollar is really caught up in the cross fire of other moves in the majors until we get to the employment numbers tomorrow,” said Adam Cole, head of global currency strategy at Royal Bank of Canada, by phone from London. “The markets are becoming more negative on risk. That will push dollar-Canada higher,” he said, meaning the U.S. dollar will climb.
The Canadian currency fell as much as 1.3 percent before trading 1 percent weaker at 97.14 cents per U.S. dollar at 7:37 a.m. in Toronto, compared with 96.21 cents yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0294.
The yen fell more than 4 percent against the dollar, the biggest drop since a 6.1 percent decline on Oct. 28, 2008, and surpassing the 3.9 percent drop at the previous intervention on March 18 this year. The Bank of Japan followed its Swiss counterpart in easing monetary policy, with Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda saying Japan’s action was unilateral following joint yen sales by Group of Seven nations in March.
“For the time being, they’ll probably achieve their objective of trapping it into a range,” RBC’s Cole said, referring to the yen. “The overwhelming risk longer term is that dollar-yen does go back to new lows.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Halifax, Nova Scotia at cfournier3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net