Canadian dollar hits lowest since 2020 as Aussie takes a hit
BNN Bloomberg
Foreign-exchange markets took a risk-averse turn Thursday, sending the Canadian dollar to its weakest against the greenback in almost two years and Australia’s currency close to the lowest since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The US dollar-loonie pair rose as much as 0.6 per cent to 1.3240, topping the mid-July level of 1.3224 that had been the highest since November 2020. The milestone comes amid a broad-based surge that’s seen the greenback hit multiyear peaks against most of its major peers in recent weeks. The Aussie slid 0.8 per cent to a low of US$0.6696 Thursday, close to the US$0.6682 level it reached in July that was the weakest since the first half of 2020.
The new lows come ahead of a widely anticipated Federal Reserve meeting next week, with greenback gaining versus most its Group-of-10 peers aside from the Swiss franc, euro and Danish krone Thursday. The dollar strengthened as Treasury yields climbed ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting. The policy-sensitive two-year rate was up as much as eight basis points at 3.87 per cent, the highest since 2007, deepening the curve inversion.
