TORONTO: The Canadian dollar weakened against its US counterpart on Wednesday for the first time in nearly two weeks as revived bets on US interest rate rises this year supported the greenback and oil dipped.
The US dollar firmed after one Fed official said two rate hikes were possible by year-end and another said an increase could come as soon as next month.
Oil prices fell, snapping a week-long rally, as investors weighed the prospect of potential talks among producers reining in ballooning oversupply. US crude futures prices were down 0.52 percent to $46.34 a barrel.
At 9:53 a.m. EDT (1353 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading at C$1.2894 to the greenback, or 77.56 US cents, weaker than Tuesday's close of C$1.2853, or 77.80 US cents.
The currency's strongest level of the session was C$1.2850, while its weakest was C$1.2919.
On Tuesday, the loonie touched its strongest since June 24 at C$1.2798 as domestic data showed a rebound in factory sales. . The currency last fell on Aug. 5.
Still, weak US business investment has hampered a long-awaited pick-up in growth of Canada's non-energy exports, economists say, while a weaker Canadian dollar has not helped exports as much as expected.
Canadian government bond prices were slightly lower across the maturity curve, with the two-year price down 1.5 Canadian cents to yield 0.575 percent and the benchmark 10-year falling 3 Canadian cents to yield 1.068 percent.
The 2-year yield touched its highest since July 29 at 0.603 percent.
Canadian retail sales for June and inflation data for July are due on Friday.
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