TORONTO: The Canadian dollar weakened on Monday to its lowest level in more than two weeks against its US counterpart as investors dumped riskier assets on fears of a Russian attack on Ukraine.
Shares across the world and the price of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, fell as the geopolitical risk added to investor worries about aggressive policy tightening by the Federal Reserve.
US crude prices were down 3.4% at $82.27 a barrel, while the Canadian dollar was trading 0.9% lower at 1.2694 to the greenback, or 78.78 US cents. It touched its weakest level since Jan. 7 at 1.2698. Speculators had turned bullish on the Canadian dollar for the first time since November, data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday. As of Jan. 18, speculators were net long 7,492 contracts of the loonie, swinging from net short 7,376 contracts in the prior week. The shift in positioning comes ahead of a potential interest rate hike by the Bank of Canada at a policy announcement on Wednesday.
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