TORONTO — The Canadian dollar edged higher against its U.S. counterpart on Friday as the government of Alberta announced plans to ease oil curtailments, but the currency stuck to a narrow trading range and was on track to end the week near flat.
Alberta, Canada’s main oil-producing province, will allow producers to boost output in November and December. In November and December, producers can increase output to 3.80 million barrels per day and 3.81 million barrels per day respectively.
Oil is one of Canada’s biggest exports so the steady erosion of curtailments since the start of the year could improve prospects for the economy.
Meanwhile, the price of oil fell and was heading for a weekly loss on a faster-than-expected recovery in Saudi output while slowing Chinese economic growth dampened the demand outlook.
U.S. crude oil futures were down 1.9 per cent at US$55.36 a barrel.
At 9:17 a.m., the Canadian dollar was trading 0.1 per cent higher at 1.3260 to the greenback, or 75.41 U.S.cents. The currency, which traded in a range of 1.3251 to 1.3278, was nearly unchanged for the week.
The steady profile for the loonie came as investors weighed the launch of an impeachment investigation into U.S. President Trump and as hopes rose of progress between the United States and China on trade talks.
Canadian government bond prices were slightly lower across the yield curve, with the two-year down 1 cent to yield 1.58 per cent and the 10-year falling 2 cents to yield 1.362 per cent. On Wednesday, the 10-year yield touched its lowest intraday level in more than two weeks at 1.289 per cent.
© Thomson Reuters 2019
