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Loonie trades in a range of 1.3366 to 1.3406
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Price of U.S. oil settles 0.8% higher
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Canadian bond yields ease across curve
By Fergal Smith TORONTO, May 9 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar was little changed against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, consolidating recent gains, as investors awaited U.S. inflation data for clues on the Federal Reserve's interest rate outlook. The Canadian dollar was nearly unchanged at 1.3377 to the greenback, or 74.76 U.S. cents, after moving in a range of 1.3366 to 1.3406. On Monday, it touched its strongest intraday level in three weeks at 1.3313.
"I think we are seeing a bit of a cooling off today. I suspect a lot of the short-covering that drove the rally since late last week is done for now," said Erik Bregar, director of FX & precious metals risk management at Silver Gold Bull.
"There is also a big data point tomorrow. ... The consolidation makes sense today." The latest U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data shows that as of May 2 speculators were sitting on bearish bets against the loonie, with net short positions up to 50,096 contracts from 43,791 in the prior week. Major U.S. stock indexes were mostly lower and the U.S. dollar rose against a basket of major currencies as investors grew more cautious ahead of Wednesday's U.S. consumer price index report. Market participants are trying to gauge how much longer the Fed will need to raise rates to bring down inflation.
The price of oil, one of Canada's major exports, settled 0.8% higher at $73.71 a barrel as markets weighed U.S. government plans to refill the nation's emergency oil reserve and anticipated higher seasonal demand. Canadian government bond yields fell across the curve. The 10-year eased 2.1 basis points to 2.958%, a day after touching its highest intraday level since April 20 of 2.998%. (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Richard Chang)
