Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart for a third day

Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart for a third day as crude oil, the main export of the country, reversing progress.

The Canadian dollar as the currency is known, declined after Canadian wholesale prices fell unexpectedly stagnated and national activity index of the Chicago Federal Reserve. Canada's currency was the closest to parity with the dollar last week over a month. Data tomorrow may show gains in the consumer price index slowed, while retail sales were stable.

"You have to oil prices, emerging from the top during the night, and concerns about what is happening to the Canadian economy," said David Watt, senior currency strategist at RBC Royal Bank of Canada Capital unit in Toronto. "If the U.S. industrial sector is not frantic, you can have an impact on Canadian exports to the U.S."

The Canadian currency depreciated 0.5 percent to 1.0193 per U.S. dollar at 10:36 am in Toronto after advancing as much as 0.4 percent, from $ 1.0140 on 17 December. It touched C $ 1.0001 on 15 December, the strongest level since it was last in line on November 11 and reached C $ 1.0147, a minimum of two weeks, on 17 December. One Canadian dollar buys 98.11 U.S. cents.

The Canadian dollar depreciated last week as an agreement by EU leaders at a two-day summit in Brussels did not allay the concern of the sovereign debt crisis stretching from Greece and Spain to other nations in the region. The single currency fell compared with 15 of the 16 major counterparts today, playing two-week lows against the dollar and the yen, as the European Central Bank expressed concern that the Irish banking legislation threatens the ability of ECB to carry out its liquidity operations.

Crude for January delivery rose as much as 0.8 percent to $ 88.75 a barrel before falling 0.9 percent to $ 87.26 in New York.