Canadian Dollar Slips As West Escalate Russia’s sanctions

The Canadian dollar weakened against its US counterpart on Monday as the West imposed tougher sanctions against Russia over its Ukraine invasion and domestic data showed that the current account balance returned to a deficit in the fourth quarter.

The safe-haven US dollar climbed and world stocks slid as new sanctions included blocking Russia’s major banks from the SWIFT global payments system, while the price of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, rallied on the potential for severe disruption to Russia’s oil exports.

Canada posted a current account deficit of CAD797 million in the fourth quarter after a revised CAD808 million surplus in the third quarter, on a deterioration of the investment income balance, Statistics Canada said.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.2% at 1.2728 to the USD, or 78.57 US cents, after trading in a range of 1.2723 to 1.2809.

Speculators have cut their bullish bets on the Canadian dollar, data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday. As of Feb. 22, net long positions had fallen to 9,253 contracts from 12,170 in the prior week.

Meanwhile, investors awaited a Bank of Canada interest rate decision on Wednesday. The central bank is expected to hike its benchmark rate for the first time since October 2018, lifting it to 0.5% from 0.25%, to fight inflation.

Canadian government bond yields were lower across the curve, tracking the move in US Treasuries. The 10-year rate fell 5 basis points to 1.846%.