The Canadian dollar CADUSD strengthened to a nine-day high against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as investors grew optimistic that central banks are done raising interest rates and that relations would improve between the world’s two largest economies.
The loonie was trading 0.1% higher at 1.3685 to the greenback, or 73.07 U.S. cents, after touching its strongest since Nov. 6 at 1.3655.
It follows gains for the currency on Tuesday as data showed a slowdown in the pace of U.S. inflation, supporting bets that the next move by the Federal Reserve will be to ease monetary policy.
“Central bank rate hikes are done and the most important bilateral relationship in the world is improving, so the outlook for 2024 growth globally is improving,” said Adam Button, chief currency analyst at ForexLive.
U.S. President Joe Biden met Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the first time in a year for talks that may ease friction between the two superpowers over military conflicts, drug-trafficking and artificial intelligence.
Canada is a major producer of commodities, including oil, so the currency tends to be sensitive to the outlook for the global economy.
U.S. crude oil futures settled down 2% at $76.66 a barrel, pressured by a bigger-than-expected rise in U.S. crude inventories and record U.S. crude production.
Domestic economic data was mixed. It showed gains for wholesale trade and manufacturing shipments in September but also that home sales fell 5.6% in October, the biggest decline in 16 months.
Canadian government bond yields were higher across the curve, tracking moves in U.S. Treasuries. The 10-year climbed 5.2 basis points to 3.744% after touching on Tuesday its lowest intraday level in two months at 3.663%.