Economics

Look Out, Loonie, Canada May Have Just Peaked

TD warns of the nation’s economy passing “a point of peak optimism.” Can the currency be far behind?

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Photographer: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
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It looks like Canada's surprisingly strong run of economic data is ending, if TD Securities is right, and that means one of the fiercest rallies on record for the Canadian dollar is poised to end as well.

We may have passed "a point of peak optimism" on the Canadian economy, senior foreign-exchange strategist Mazen Issa wrote, after the release Wednesday of trade data for March in which America's neighbor to the north recorded its biggest monthly deficit on record. Exports tanked, with acute weakness in shipments to the U.S. Canada's trade surplus with its largest trading partner shrank to levels not seen since before the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed.