The Canadian dollar ended little changed against a weaker US counterpart on Monday, with a Bank of Canada business outlook survey helping it hold ground even as prices for crude oil, a major Canadian export, tumbled. The Canadian dollar settled at C$1.3230 to the greenback, or 75.59 US cents, barely stronger than the Bank of Canada's official close on Friday of C$1.3232, or 75.57 US cents.
"I'm surprised that Canada's not weaker, or dollar-Canada's not higher, given that crude's down more than 3 percent," said David Bradley, director of foreign exchange trading at Scotiabank, adding that volumes were light. Crude extended losses to nearly 4 percent in post-settlement trade on concern that record Iraqi crude exports and rising US output would undermine Opec's efforts to curb global oversupply. "I'd be more comfortable buying (US) dollars at this point than selling them because I think we're close to the bottom of the range," Bradley said. The Canadian currency hit its strongest in more than three weeks on Friday following surprisingly strong domestic employment and trade data, before pulling back to end barely higher.