* C$ at C$1.0098 vs US$, or 99.03 U.S. cents
* Bond prices retreat across the curve
* ECB head says "whatever it takes to preserve the euro"
By Jennifer Kwan
TORONTO, July 26 (Reuters) - Canada's dollar climbed to a
10-week high on Thursday, tracking the euro and other risk
assets higher after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi
pledged to do whatever was necessary to protect the euro zone
from collapse.
"Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it
takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough,"
he told an investment conference in London. The comments sparked
a surge in the euro and global equities.
Draghi's comments were his boldest to date and helped
reassure a market waiting for the ECB to act on lowering
unreasonably high government borrowing costs, some of which have
spiraled to unsustainable levels.
"It's really following moves in the euro. The Draghi
comments came out, which were very euro positive. It caused a
broad sell-off in the U.S. dollar. It caused commodities to
rally, it caused stocks to rally, which is Canadian dollar
positive," said David Bradley, director of foreign exchange
trading at Scotiabank.
"Those were certainly some strong words that Draghi said.
Whether there's actually any follow through from what he said
will be interesting to find out."
At around 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT), the Canadian dollar
was at C$1.0098 versus the U.S. dollar, or 99.03 U.S.
cents. Earlier, the currency surged to C$1.0063, its strongest
since May 16 and decidedly higher than Wednesday's North
American session finish at C$1.0152 against the greenback, or
98.50 U.S. cents.
"The broad theme, it's not something that's confined to the
Canadian dollar obviously, is that risk is clearly back on this
morning and this is all really to do with Europe," said Chris
Applin, senior dealer at Canadian Forex in London.
Applin pegged the rest of the day's range between
C$1.0020-C$1.0100, but cautioned that markets are still very
fickle.
"I just think that this move is maybe premature given
obviously nothing fundamentally changed here; Draghi has just
come in and just done some jawboning basically," he said.
"It's not like we're any further down the line on euro bonds
or even a kind of banking supervisory body ... but I think
markets will look for the slightest hint that the ECB are
willing to do a little bit more."
Still, Wall street and Toronto stocks soared on the Draghi's
pledge, and oil prices climbed for a third day.
Canadian bond prices were lower across the curve in the
risk-on move with the two-year bond down 10 Canadian
cents to yield 1.007 percent and the benchmark 10-year bond
39 Canadian cents lower to yield 1.634 percent.