The Canadian dollar edged lower against its US counterpart on Friday, lingering close to the one-month low hit in the previous session, as the coronavirus outbreak weighed on oil prices and amid broad-based strength for the US currency.

At 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading down about 0.12% at 1.3141 to the greenback, or 76.10 US cents. On Wednesday, the loonie came under pressure after the Bank of Canada (BoC) left its benchmark interest rate on hold at 1.75% as expected but said a future cut was possible should a recent slowdown in domestic growth persist.

The loonie has fallen about 1% since the start of the year after climbing 5% in 2019, when it was the top-performing G10 currency. Canadian government bond prices were higher across the maturity curve, with the two-year price up 6.5 Canadian cents to yield 1.486% and the benchmark 10-year rising 43.2 Canadian cents to yield 1.367%.