C$ hits 3-week low as China's trade talk worries investors

TORONTO: The Canadian dollar weakened to a three-week low against its US counterpart on Friday and was on track for its biggest weekly decline since March, as investors became more worried about the trade dispute between the United States and China.

Global stocks fell as China said the US must show sincerity if it is to hold meaningful trade talks. It follows a potentially devastating blow by the US to Chinese tech giant Huawei.

Canada runs a current account deficit and exports many commodities, including oil, so its economy could be hurt by a slowdown in the global flow of capital or trade.

The price of oil was supported by a host of supply cuts and concern of further disruption to Middle East shipments as tensions rise. US crude oil futures were up 0.5% at $63.17 a barrel.

At 9:11 a.m. (1311 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading 0.3% lower at 1.3501 to the greenback, or 74.07 US cents. The currency, which was down 0.7% for the week, touched its weakest level since April 25 at 1.3514.

On Thursday, the Bank of Canada said the overall risk to the Canadian financial system was slightly higher than in June 2018 and expressed concern about the increasing threat posed by fragile corporate debt funding.

Canadian government bond prices were higher across a flatter yield curve, with the two-year up 4 Canadian cents to yield 1.566% and the 10-year rising 33 Canadian cents to yield 1.644%.

The gap between the 2- and 10-year yields narrowed by 1.4

basis points to a spread of 7.8 basis points in favor of the longer-dated bond, its narrowest gap since March 29.

Canada's interest rate markets are due to close early ahead of the Victoria Day holiday on Monday.