TORONTO: The Canadian dollar weakened to a six-week low against its US counterpart on Tuesday, as rising uncertainty about the global economic outlook weighed on investor sentiment and the safe-haven greenback broadly climbed.

The US dollar climbed to a two-year high against a basket of major currencies as Russia accused NATO of creating a serious risk of nuclear war by arming Ukraine in a proxy battle.

Investors also weighed the economic impact of China’s COVID-19 lockdowns and prospects of a big US interest rate hike next week.

Earlier this month, the Bank of Canada hiked its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point, its biggest single move in 22 years. The central bank will likely consider another half-percentage-point rate increase at its next policy decision on June 1, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Monday.

“It will be hard for the CAD to reflect tighter BoC policy and still relatively firm commodity prices while risk appetite remains fragile,” strategists at Scotiabank, including Shaun Osborne, said in a note.