Canada's Dollar Gains for First Time in a Week on U.S. Weakness

By Chris Fournier

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's currency rose for the first time in more than a week, snapping its longest losing streak in almost two months, as its U.S. counterpart fell versus most of the world's major currencies.

The Canadian dollar ``was just unwinding a little bit too quickly,'' said David Watt, a senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, a unit of Canada's biggest bank by assets. ``It looks like the Canadian dollar got caught up in some of the fear aspect.''

The Canadian dollar rose as much as 0.8 percent to C$1.1188 per U.S. dollar, from C$1.1281 yesterday. It last traded at C$1.1259 at 9:38 a.m. in Toronto. One Canadian dollar buys 88.82 U.S. cents. The currency declined eight straight days through Aug. 11.

Watt predicts Canada's dollar will strengthen to C$1.10 by year-end. The loonie, as Canada's currency is known because of the aquatic bird on the one-dollar coin, has dropped 8.3 percent since Sept. 26.

``Although we have been bullish the greenback against the loonie, we see this move as too far too fast,'' Marc Chandler, head of currency strategy with Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York, wrote in a note to clients. ``Some technical signs suggest a deeper U.S. dollar pullback is possible.''

Canada's currency will slip to C$1.13 against the U.S. dollar by the end of 2009, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists.

Two-Year Yield

The yield on the two-year government bond rose as much as 6 basis points, or 0.06 percentage point, to 2.23 percent, from 2.17 percent yesterday, the lowest since Bloomberg began tracking the data in 1989. It last traded at 2.22 percent. The price of the 2.75 percent security due in December 2010 dropped 11 cents to C$101.11.

The 10-year note's yield climbed 8 basis points to 3.66 percent. The price of the 4.25 percent security maturing in June 2018 dropped 64 cents to C$104.75.

The 10-year bond yielded 144 basis points more than the two- year security, from 142 basis points yesterday. The so-called yield curve is the steepest since December 2004.

The two-year bond's yield will rise to 2.96 percent by the end of this year, while the 10-year bond's yield will climb to 3.85 percent, according to the median forecasts of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net