The Canadian dollar stumbled on Friday as the greenback bounced back from a dismal April on signs that a run of uninspired US economic data for the first quarter may be over. US economic figures on Friday were mixed, but investors appeared to be trading off a more optimistic-than-expected tone in the US Federal Reserve's policy statement on Wednesday.
"It's more of US dollar-positive story today," said David Tulk, chief Canada macro strategist at TD Securities. "You think of the catalyst, and the economic data was generally soft and disappointing ... you have to maybe look at the move today in the wider context of the week." Weaker prices for crude, a key Canadian export, compounded the Canadian dollar weakness. Oil, which had been trading near their highs for the year, came under pressure from the stronger greenback and by Iraq's statement that its crude exports hit a record in April.
US crude crude was down 0.7 percent at $59.20, while Brent lost 0.4 percent to $66.50. The Canadian dollar, which was underperforming many of its counterparts, finished the session at C$1.2157 to the greenback, or 82.26 US cents. This was nearly a cent weaker than the Bank of Canada's official close of C$1.2064, or 82.89 US cents, on Thursday. The loonie, which traded between C$1.2064 and C$1.2205 during the session, was little changed for the week, strengthening less than 0.1 percent. On Wednesday, it had touched it strongest level since the Bank of Canada's surprise interest rate cut in January.
The US dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rebounded on Friday after slumping to its worst month in four years in April. Canadian government bond prices were mostly lower across the maturity curve, with the two-year price down 6.5 Canadian cents to yield 0.712 percent and the benchmark 10-year falling 73 Canadian cents to yield 1.658 percent. The Canada-US two-year bond spread was 11.3 basis points, while the 10-year spread was -45.4 basis points.
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