Canadian dollar dips as oil falls, investors weigh NAFTA talks

Canadian dollar dips as oil falls, investors weigh NAFTA talks

Mark Blinch

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Oil, one of Canada's major exports, eased as traders were wary of betting too heavily on which way prices might move ahead of next week's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

U.S. crude was down 0.76 percent at $56.12 a barrel.

Canada and Mexico will not make counterproposals to U.S. demands for tougher NAFTA automotive content rules but instead will offer rebuttals and ask technical questions on Monday, people familiar with the talks said.

At 9:17 a.m. ET (1417 GMT), the Canadian dollar was down 0.1 percent at C$1.2776 to the greenback, or 78.27 U.S. cents.

The currency traded in a narrow range of C$1.2756 to C$1.2800.

On Friday, the loonie touched a two-week low at C$1.2824 after tame inflation data tempered prospects for the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates in the first quarter of next year.

Plans by Canada's central bank to add more speeches from policymakers to its schedule after an interest rate decision will not do enough to provide clearer guidance on monetary policy, analysts said.

Speculators have cut bullish bets on the Canadian dollar, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Reuters calculations showed on Friday.

As of Tuesday, net long positions had slipped to 47,335 contracts from 50,889 a week earlier. In October, bullish bets had reached 76,392 contracts, their highest in five years.

Canadian government bond prices were lower across the yield curve, with the two-year down 3 Canadian cents to yield 1.473 percent and the 10-year falling 14 Canadian cents to yield 1.955 percent.

Canadian wholesale trade for September is due on Tuesday, and retail sales data for that month is set for release on Thursday.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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