(Updates throughout with closing figures, FX strategist
comment, details)
* Canadian dollar ends at C$1.3394, or 74.66 U.S. cents
* Bond prices higher across the maturity curve
By Solarina Ho
TORONTO, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar flirted
near 11-year lows against the greenback on Monday as volatile
crude oil prices took a negative turn and a general gloom over
global growth worries cast a pall over markets.
U.S. crude prices settled down $1.27, or 2.78 percent at
$44.43 a barrel on Monday, hurt in part by hefty losses on Wall
Street. The price of crude, a major Canadian export, has
plunged by more than half in the last year over excess supply
and soft demand concerns, dragging the loonie along some 20
percent lower in that time.
"It's crude and risk appetite in general," said Greg
Anderson, global head of foreign exchange strategy at BMO
Capital Markets in New York.
"Not a ton of new data or information over the weekend that
really justifies the declines, but it's there and it's very
troubling to asset markets."
The Canadian dollar finished at C$1.3394 to the
U.S. dollar, or 74.66 U.S. cents, softer than the Bank of
Canada's official close of C$1.3316, or 75.10 U.S. cents on
Friday. This was also its weakest close since June, 2004.
The loonie traded between C$1.3319 and C$1.3395 during the
session. Last week, it briefly touched C$1.3417, or 74.53 U.S.
cents in intraday trading.
Markets have been nervous over the state of China's economy
along with other emerging markets and are anxiously awaiting
upcoming data for more clues on the economic health of one of
the world's largest commodity consumers.
Closer to home, potentially market-moving reports on tap
this week include Canadian gross domestic product figures for
July, due out on Wednesday, and U.S. labor data for September on
Friday.
Canadian government bond prices were higher across the
maturity curve, with the two-year price up 7.5
Canadian cents to yield 0.506 percent and the benchmark 10-year
rising 78 Canadian cents to yield 1.442 percent.
The Canada-U.S. two-year bond spread was -16.6 basis points,
while the 10-year spread was -65.5 basis points.
(Reporting by Solarina Ho; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Meredith
Mazzilli)