The Canadian dollar weakened to a four-day low against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, despite increasing oil prices, as the greenback rallied broadly on rising global risk appetite.
The U.S. dollar strengthened against a basket of currencies as risk sentiment gradually improved after a week of turmoil on hopes that major central banks would look to launch fresh stimulus measures to lift their sluggish economies.
“The U.S. dollar is up across the board today so this seems to be just a broad based dollar rally that’s weakened the Canadian dollar,” said Blake Jespersen, managing director of foreign exchange sales at BMO Capital Markets.
At 3:06 p.m., the Canadian dollar was trading 0.5 per cent lower at 1.3325 to the greenback, or 75.05 U.S. cents. The currency touched its weakest intraday level since last Thursday at 1.3332.
Meanwhile, the price of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, was up after a weekend attack on a Saudi oil facility by Yemen’s Houthi forces and as traders looked for signs that top economies would take measures to counteract a global slowdown. U.S. crude oil futures settled 2.4 per cent higher at $56.21 a barrel.
Canada’s manufacturing sales data for June is due on Tuesday, with a Reuters poll forecasting a 1.7-per-cent decrease, which could help guide expectations about the Bank of Canada’s interest rate decision.
Canadian government bond prices were lower across the yield curve in sympathy with U.S. Treasuries. The two-year fell 4.5 cents to yield 1.359 per cent and the 10-year was down 14 cents to yield 1.178 per cent.
On Thursday, the 10-year yield touched its lowest level since October 2016 at 1.083 per cent.
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