TORONTO: The Canadian dollar edged lower against its US counterpart on Friday, reducing its gains for the week as oil prices fell and domestic data showed a steep drop in home sales that offset evidence of stronger-than-expected manufacturing activity.
At 4:05 p.m. (2005 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading 0.1 percent lower at 1.3348 to the greenback, or 74.92 US cents. The currency traded in a range of 1.3290 to 1.3372.
For the week, the loonie was up 0.6 percent.
"A lot of noise in the market but not a lot movement today," said Rahim Madhavji, president at Knightsbridge Foreign Exchange. "It still comes down to interest rates and jobs for the longer term."
Data last Friday showed a second consecutive month of bumper job gains that quelled concerns that Canada's economy could be headed for a recession.
The Bank of Canada is unlikely to cut interest rates to support a flagging economy as long as job growth continues at a robust pace, an analysis of the central bank's response to past divergences in economic data suggests.
On Friday, domestic data was mixed. Canadian home sales tumbled 9.1 percent in February from the previous month to hit their lowest level since November 2012, the Canadian Real Estate Association said.
But separate data, from Statistics Canada, showed that factory sales were up by 1.0 percent in January from December. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast on average an increase of 0.4 percent.
The price of oil, one of Canada's major exports, retreated as worries about the global economy and robust US production put a brake on prices. US crude oil futures settled 0.2 percent lower at $58.52 a barrel.
The two-year rose 6 Canadian cents to yield 1.624 percent and the 10-year climbed 35 Canadian cents to yield 1.716 percent. The 10-year yield touched its lowest intraday since June 2017 at 1.704 percent.
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