The Canadian dollar weakened against its US counterpart on Friday, pulling back from an earlier 11-day high as the greenback broadly climbed and domestic data showed a drop in manufacturing sales. The US dollar limped back from a three-year low against a basket of currencies but still marked its fifth weekly loss out of seven weeks this year.
"Canada is getting pulled around by the broader (US) dollar move," said Blake Jespersen, managing director, foreign exchange sales at BMO Capital Markets. "Canadian fundamentals aren't really shhining through at the moment. Speculators cut bullish bets on the Canadian dollar for the first week in six, data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Reuters calculations showed. As of Feb. 13, net long positions had fallen to 32,529 contracts from 40,164 a week earlier.
At 4 pm EST (2100 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading 0.6 percent lower at C$1.2557 to the greenback, or 79.64 US cents. The currency's weakest level of the session was C$1.2567, while it touched its strongest level since Feb. 5 at C$1.2451. For the week, the commodity-linked loonie was headed for a 0.2 percent gain. It fell 1.2 percent last week, when global stocks had slumped.