Canada’s Dollar Weakens Before Consumer Price Data as Oil Falls

Canada’s dollar fell against its U.S. peer as crude oil, the nation’s biggest export, declined and the government prepared to issue a report that may show the country’s consumer price index was unchanged in July.

The Canadian currency headed for a sixth consecutive weekly gain, its longest winning streak since 2010. Consumer prices rose 1.5 last month from a year earlier, unchanged from June, economists in a Bloomberg News survey forecast before the data.

“There’s a little pessimism around CPI and whether that number will meet expectations,” Blake Jespersen, managing director of foreign exchange in Toronto at Bank of Montreal, said in a telephone interview. “Generally speaking, the Canadian dollar is still quite strong. Barring a disappointing CPI, it will hang onto these gains today.”

Canada’s currency, nicknamed the loonie for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, depreciated 0.2 percent to 98.82 cents per U.S. dollar at 8:16 a.m. in Toronto. It has advanced 0.3 percent this week. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0119.

Crude oil for September delivery fell 0.3 percent to $95.32 a barrel in New York, its first decline in four days.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lindsey Rupp in New York at lrupp2@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net