Canadian Dollar Touches 8-Week High on Federal Reserve

The Canadian dollar touched an almost eight-week high against its U.S. counterpart before a Federal Reserve policy statement forecast to bring a new round of asset purchases to help drive the U.S. economy.

Canada’s dollar gained for a seventh day, the longest streak since January 2011, as the U.S. central bank prepared to release a policy statement at around 12:30 p.m. in Washington, followed by forecasts for growth, unemployment and inflation, and a press conference from Chairman Ben S. Bernanke at 2:15 p.m. The statement is expected to outline $45 billion in monthly Treasury buying as part of the Fed’s quantitative-easing strategy to stimulate job growth, according to a Bloomberg survey of 49 economists. Oil, Canada’s leading export, gained with global stocks.