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TORONTO — The Canadian dollar steadied
against its US counterpart on Monday, as higher oil prices
offset broad-based gains for the greenback and investors awaited
domestic inflation data later in the week.
Canada’s consumer price index report for March, due on
Wednesday, could help guide expectations for further tightening
from the Bank of Canada.
Last Wednesday, the central bank raised its benchmark
interest rate by half of a percentage point to 1%, its biggest
single hike in more than two decades, to try to limit inflation.
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The Federal Reserve is also expected to move aggressively to
tackle inflation, which helped push the US dollar
higher against a basket of major currencies.
Meanwhile, US crude oil futures settled 1.2% higher
at $108.21 a barrel as outages in Libya deepened concern over
tight global supply amid the Ukraine crisis.
The Canadian dollar was nearly unchanged at 1.2613 to
the greenback, or 79.28 US cents, after trading in a range of
1.2604 to 1.2644.
Activity in the foreign exchange market was lighter than
usual with a number of major financial centers closed for Easter
Monday.
Speculators have raised their bullish bets on the Canadian
dollar to the highest in four weeks, data from the US
Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday.
The loonie has gained 0.2% since the beginning of the year,
trailing only the Australian dollar among G10 currencies.
Canadian government bond yields edged higher across the
curve. The 10-year touched its highest level since
January 2014 at 2.800% before dipping to 2.784%, up nearly 1
basis points on the day.
(Reporting by Fergal Smith; editing by Barbara Lewis)
financialpost.com