The Canadian dollar is slightly higher in light trading, having rallied modestly on the ongoing rebound in crude oil prices in Wednesday's early going.


The U.S. dollar was trading at C$0.9911 at 10:22 a.m. EDT (1422 GMT), from C$0.9956 at 8:00 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) and C$0.9937 late Tuesday.


With no domestic data or other events on tap Wednesday, movements in the Canadian dollar have continued to be closely correlated with movements in commodity prices, most notably oil.


Oil's slump on Tuesday resulted in a mildly defensive tone for the Canadian dollar that took it to one-week lows, and the continuing slide in Wednesday's early going initially kept the Canadian unit pinned in tight ranges around the C$0.9950 area.


But as oil prices began staging a recovery, that enabled the Canadian dollar to likewise bounce back toward the C$0.9900 figure.


"A big driver of currency valuations across the board over the last 24 hours or more has been the price of energy and crude oil," said Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank in Toronto. "With crude as volatile as it is and staging a bit of an intraday rebound here, the Canadian dollar and commodity bloc currencies are also coming back."


Options-related activity and related technical factors have also contributed to the better tone for the Canadian dollar thus far Wednesday, Spitz added.


As long as oil prices can keep rebounding, the Canadian dollar might be able to regain some momentum to trade back into the low C$0.9800s, though the currency in recent sessions has repeatedly been unable to get past the C$0.9820 area.


Sustained inability to surmount that hump would likely build more pressure for a more substantial Canadian dollar correction back toward the parity mark with the U.S. dollar.


Canadian bonds are slightly lower in light trading early Wednesday, with the benchmark 10-year bond yielding 3.67%, unchanged from late Tuesday.


These are the exchange rates at 10:22 a.m. EDT (1422 GMT), 8:00 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), and late Tuesday.

USD/CAD 0.9911 0.9956 0.9937
EUR/CAD 1.5524 1.5584 1.5600

CAD/JPY 105.48 105.29 104.96

The greenback kicked off the holiday-shortened week higher against the majors, edging up to 104.32 versus the yen and 1.5703 against the euro on the heels of mixed US economic reports earlier in the session. New home sales in April reversed an 8.5% decline in March, improving by 3.3% to 526k units. However, the Case Shiller home price index in March posted its steepest decline on record, down by 14.4% versus a 12.7% drop in February. Meanwhile, in another sign of the struggling US economy ¨C the Conference Board¡¯s May Consumer Confidence survey dropped to a two-year low and worst than expectations to 57.2 versus April at 62.3.

Read the rest of the report here

The yen depreciated marginally vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar today as the greenback tested offers around the ¥103.50 level and was supported around the ¥103.10 level.


Today’s range was very limited on account of market holidays in the U.K. and U.S. Traders await the release of nationwide consumer price inflation data for April and Tokyo-area May inflation data on Friday. The government is not expected to submit a new candidate this week for the vacant Bank of Japan Deputy Governor position.


The BoJ is expected to keep the overnight call rate unchanged at 0.50% for the foreseeable future. The Nikkei 225 stock index lost 2.30% to close at ¥13,690.19. Dollar bids are cited around the ¥103.00/ 101.35 levels. The euro moved higher vis-à-vis the yen as the single currency tested offers around the ¥163.25 level and was supported around the ¥162.75 level.


The British pound and Swiss franc moved higher vis-à-vis the yen as the crosses tested offers around the ¥205.15 and ¥101.00 levels, respectively. The Chinese yuan appreciated vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar as the greenback closed at CNY 6.9360 in the over-the-counter market.