TORONTO: The Canadian dollar was steady against its US counterpart on Thursday, and with little news to drive trading after Wednesday's volatility investors were seen as unlikely to challenge the day's trading range.
The currency had touched a session high on Wednesday after unexpectedly weak retail sales data, but quickly strengthened to its firmest level of the session after the Bank of Canada dropped its reference to neutrality in its rate statement.
Investors were unable to get clarity from the Bank of Canada when a scheduled press conference was canceled after a gunman fatally shot a soldier at the Canadian War Memorial in Ottawa and gunfire erupted inside the nearby parliament, near a room where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was speaking.
"Basically yesterday was a volatile day, but in the end, we closed more or less flat after testing both ends of the range. Today, it's just flows in the market," said Martin Schwerdtfeger, an FX strategist at TD Securities.
"The fact that we did not get Governor (Stephen) Poloz' press conference leaves the market more or less in a limbo right now."
The Canadian dollar, which was among the weaker performing currencies, was trading at C$1.1239 to the greenback, or 88.98 US cents, little changed from the Bank of Canada's official close on Wednesday at C$1.1243, or 88.94 US cents.
Schwerdtfeger did not expect the market to break out of the trading range. The currency has traded between C$1.1207 and C$1.1263 so far in the session.
Investors had widely expected the central bank to hold its key interest rate at 1 percent, which it did, and to maintain a neutral to dovish cautious tone in its monetary policy report. After abandoning the "neutral" reference, market participants were hoping to glean additional details on the Bank of Canada's intentions and overall outlook.
Canadian government bond prices were lower across the maturity curve, with the two-year off 3 Canadian cents to yield 1 percent and the benchmark 10-year shedding 20 Canadian cents to yield 1.982 percent.
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