TORONTO, March 22 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar was little changed against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, with the currency trading in a narrow range as domestic data showed new home prices continuing to decline and ahead of a Federal Reserve interest rate decision.
Traders have halved the size of the expected rate hike by the U.S. central bank to 25 basis points following troubles in the banking sector, with some pointing to the Fed's aggressive monetary tightening over the past year as one of the reasons for the crisis.
The Bank of Canada paused its tightening campaign earlier this month. A summary of the bank's policy deliberations for that decision is due for release at 1330 ET (1730 GMT).
Canadian new home prices fell 0.2% month-over-month in February following a similar decrease in January as the rapid increase in mortgage rates over the last year slowed housing demand, data from Statistics Canada showed.
The Canadian dollar was trading nearly unchanged at 1.3708 to the greenback, or 72.95 U.S. cents, after moving in a range of 1.3694 to 1.3718.
The price of oil , one of Canada's major exports, was down 0.2% at $69.55 a barrel after data from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday that called demand into question.
Canadian government bond yields were mixed across a flatter curve. The 2-year rose 2.2 basis points to 3.731%, while the 10-year was down 1.2 basis points at 2.881%.
