Canada’s Dollar slides through the ice

The American dollar isn’t the only North American dollar under duress. Yes, our brothers from the north, Canada, saw their dollar post its greatest weekly decline since October. This came after an investor aversion to risks seemed to reform in the face of an ailing global economy.

Canada’s dollar dropped 4.7 percent on equity markets and prices for crude oil. Crude oil makes up about a tenth of the nation’s exports.

“It’s been a perfect storm of negative factors for the Canadian dollar,” said San Francisco based senior currency strategist, John Rothfield of Bank of America Corp. Rothfield also claimed that trade numbers are lower than expected and are injuring the currency as well.

On Jan 9, the Canadian dollar stood at C$1.1853 per U.S. dollar. It now stands at C$1.2431 per US dollar. To flip it around, one Canada dollar will get you 80.44 U.S. cents.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 4.5 percent this week. That drop came after some concern that governments cannot succeed in preventing the continued worsening of the global recession.

Crude oil futures fell 12 percent this week to $35.90 a barrel. This drop is significant to the Canadian dollar, considering that Crude is the largest component in the Bank of Canada’s Commodity Price Index, accounting for 21 percent.

For updates on the prices of currency and oil keep up with Employment Crossing.