The Canadian dollar was little changed against its US counterpart on Friday as this week's stronger-than-expected domestic data was offset by reduced investor appetite for risk. US stocks plunged in a broad sell-off as China and the United States traded their latest salvos in a prolonged trade war.
The Canadian dollar was trading nearly unchanged at 1.3296 to the greenback, or 75.21 US cents at 4:23 pm ET (2023 GMT). The currency was down 0.2% for the week. Canadian government bond prices were higher across the yield curve, with the two-year up 17.5 Canadian cents to yield 1.379% and the 10-year rising 111 Canadian cents to yield 1.175%.
Canada exports many commodities, including oil, so its economy could be hurt by a slowdown in the flow of global trade. Data this week showed Canada retail sales in June and inflation in July both beat expectations. "We are really struggling to see the Canadian dollar picking up benefit from this week's data which has been quite significantly better than expected," said Shaun Osborne, chief currency strategist at Scotiabank.