TORONTO: The Canadian dollar weakened against its US counterpart on Tuesday, pulling back from its highest in nearly seven weeks, as equity markets globally fell and data showed a surprise narrowing in Canada’s trade surplus.
The surplus narrowed to C$1.5 billion in April, below analyst forecasts of C$2.9 billion and down from a revised C$2.3 billion in March, as growth in both exports and imports slowed.One of Canada’s major exports is oil, which steadied at about $118.50 a barrel as supply concerns were offset by weaker risk sentiment. World shares fell and bond yields dipped from recent highs as a surprise 50-basis-point rate increase in Australia raised concern over policy tightening and major US retailer Target Corp issued a weak quarterly margin forecast for the second time in less than a month.
The Canadian dollar was down 0.2% at 1.26 to the greenback, or 79.37 US cents, after trading in a range of 1.2570 to 1.2618. On Monday, the currency touched its strongest since April 21 at 1.2532. It is the only G10 currency to gain ground this year against the greenback, helped by soaring oil prices and larger than usual interest rate hikes by the Bank of Canada.
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