C$ gives back some of last week's gains

TORONTO: The Canadian dollar gave back some of last week's gains in early trade on Monday as the greenback was mostly stronger amid signs from central banks in Europe and Asia that they are willing to do more to support economic growth and inflation.

World stock markets rose after a frenetic round of activity at central banks in Asia and Europe suggested concern about growth will be met with action.

European shares, which had their strongest day in a month on Friday after China's central bank cut interest rates, edged higher still after sources told Reuters that Beijing was ready to ease policy further to head off slowing inflation.

The Canadian currency rallied to a three-week high against the greenback on Friday after Canadian inflation data came in stronger than forecast, making an interest-rate cut by the Bank of Canada highly unlikely.

"(The Canadian dollar) last week strengthened on the week after that stronger-than-expected inflation print, but going into the open today we're a little bit weaker," said Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at Scotiabank. "It's a mixed US dollar environment with the European strong and most of the growth currencies weak."

In commodity markets, oil edged lower ahead of a key OPEC meeting on Thursday with markets uncertain that producers would agree on a meaningful output cut to support prices. Brent fell 13 cents at $80.24 a barrel, while US crude was 9 cents lower at $76.42.

At 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) the Canadian dollar was at C$1.1250 to the greenback, or 88.89 US cents, weaker than Friday's North American session close of C$1.1239, or 88.98 US cents, after strengthening about 0.4 percent last week.

Sutton said investors are waiting for Canadian retail sales data for September, due out on Tuesday. It will be the final key piece of economic data before third-quarter gross domestic product figures are released on Friday. Market participants are expecting a robust September after a very weak showing in July and August.

Canadian government bond prices were mixed across the maturity curve, with T-bills higher and longer-dated maturities slipping. The two-year shed 1 Canadian cent to yield 1.070 percent, while the benchmark 10-year dropped 10 Canadian cents to yield 2.018 percent.