The Canadian dollar edged higher against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, with the currency recovering from an earlier five-day low as easing of global trade tensions raised investor risk appetite.
The United States government will delay imposing a 10 per cent tariff on certain Chinese goods, including laptops and cell phones, that had been scheduled to start next month, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said.
“The news that some parts of the tariff list will be delayed is constructive for risky assets and the Canadian dollar is taking its cue from that,” said Bipan Rai, North America head of FX strategy at CIBC Capital Markets
Canada runs a current account deficit and exports many commodities, including oil, so its economy could be hurt by a slowdown in the global flow of trade or capital.
U.S. crude oil futures settled 4 per cent higher at $57.10 a barrel as easing trade tensions reduced global demand concerns.
At 3:10 p.m., the Canadian dollar was trading 0.2 per cent higher at 1.3222 to the greenback, or 75.63 U.S. cents. The currency’s strongest intraday level was 1.3185, while it touched its weakest since last Thursday at 1.3293.
Canadian government bond prices were lower across a flatter yield curve in sympathy with U.S. Treasuries, as trade tensions eased and data showed a pick-up in U.S. inflation.
The two-year fell 9 cents to yield 1.376 per cent and the 10-year was down 30 cents to yield 1.23 per cent.
The 10-year yield fell 1.7 basis points further below the 2-year yield to a spread of -14.6 basis points, the curve’s largest inversion since June 2000.
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