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TORONTO — The Canadian dollar strengthened

against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as a pullback in U.S.

bond yields weighed on the greenback, but gains for the loonie

stopped short of its strongest intraday level in two months the

day before.

The loonie was trading 0.2% higher at 1.2440 to the

greenback, or 80.39 U.S. cents, after trading in a range of

1.2431 to 1.2478.

The loonie is “benefiting from broad U.S. dollar sales on

the back of weak (U.S. bond) yields,” said Erik Bregar, an

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independent FX analyst.

The U.S. dollar eased back from a one-year high as

longer-dated Treasury yields fell despite U.S. inflation data

that showed prices rose solidly in September, advancing

expectations for Federal Reserve tightening.

Treasury yields have mostly been climbing since last month.

Moves in commodity markets added to support for the loonie,

Bregar said.

Oil settled 0.3% lower at $80.44 a barrel after

recouping much of its earlier decline, while copper was

up nearly 4%. Canada is a major producer of both.

On Tuesday, the loonie touched its strongest level since

July 30 at 1.2430 as the gap widened between Canadian and U.S.

bond yields.

The wider gap comes after data on Friday showed that Canada

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had added back all the jobs it lost during the pandemic, which

could cement further cutting of the Bank of Canada’s bond

purchase program at an interest rate announcement on Oct. 27.

The Canadian 2-year yield on Wednesday touched

its highest level since March 2020 at 0.802% before dipping to

0.789%, up 4.2 basis points on the day.

The gap between Canadian and U.S. 2-year yields widened 2.6

basis points to 42.5 basis points in favor of the Canadian bond,

its widest since January 2015, while the 10-year spread was 3.3

basis points wider at 7.5 basis points.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Peter

Cooney)