TORONTO: The Canadian dollar edged lower on Thursday against its US counterpart as oil prices fell, while political uncertainty in Washington weighed further on stocks.
US crude oil prices fell 1 percent to $48.58 on signs that the market remained well supplied with crude despite efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other big exporters to curb production and support prices.
A selloff in US stocks looked set to extend into its second day as a series of scandals cast a shadow over Donald Trump's presidency and the future of his pro-growth agenda.
Safe-haven currencies, such as the yen and the Swiss franc, have outperformed on the political uncertainty at the expense of commodity-linked currencies like the Canadian dollar, which are more sensitive to the outlook for global growth.
At 9:23 a.m. ET (1323 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading at C$1.3613 to the greenback, or 73.46 US cents, down 0.1 percent, according to Reuters data.
The currency traded in a range of C$1.3582 TO C$1.3669. On Wednesday it touched its strongest in nearly three weeks at C$1.3573.
Foreign investment in Canadian securities amounted to C$15.1 billion in March, led by buying of corporate instruments, Statistics Canada said.
Canadian government bond prices were mixed across a flatter yield curve, with the two-year down 1 Canadian cents to yield 0.664 percent and the 10-year climbing 12 Canadian cents to yield 1.439 percent.
Canadian inflation data for April and retail sales data for March are due on Friday.
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