*Canadian dollar weakens 0.4% against greenback*Touches five-day low at 1.3440*Canadian housing starts fall 13% in January*Ten-year yield touches its
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Canadian dollar weakens 0.4% against greenback
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Touches five-day low at 1.3440
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Canadian housing starts fall 13% in January
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Ten-year yield touches its highest since Dec. 30
TORONTO, Feb 15 (Reuters) – The Canadian dollar fellagainst its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as the prospect ofadditional interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve weighed oninvestor sentiment and domestic data showed weakening in thehousing market.
Wall Street was mixed and the U.S. dollar roseagainst a basket of major currencies after the release ofstronger-than-expected U.S. retail sales data, which could offermore room for the U.S. central bank to raise interest rates.
It followed data on Tuesday showing U.S. inflation that wasstickier than expected.
The price of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, was alsopressured by expectations of further interest rate hikes as wellas signs of ample U.S. supplies.
U.S. crude prices settled down 0.6% at $78.59 abarrel, while the Canadian dollar was trading 0.4% lowerat 1.3390 to the greenback, or 74.68 U.S. cents, after touchingits weakest level since Friday at 1.3440.
Canadian home sales fell 3% in January from December andwere down 37.1% on an annual basis after a rapid increase inborrowing costs since March last year.
Housing starts were also down in January, falling 13% fromthe previous month in a sign that building activity has startedto cool.
Data for December showed a decline of 1.5% for factory salesand a drop of 0.8% for wholesale trade.
Canadian government bond yields climbed across a steepercurve. The 10-year touched its highest level sinceDec. 30 at 3.312% before dipping to 3.291%, up 10.5 basis pointson the day.(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Paul Simao and JonathanOatis)
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