Canadian dollar hits 3-month low as dovish Bank of Canada cuts rates

By Fergal Smith

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar weakened to a three-month low against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as the Bank of Canada lowered interest rates, as expected, for a second time in two months and signaled it was likely to ease further.

The Bank of Canada cut its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 4.5% and said more reductions in borrowing costs were likely if inflation continued to cool in line with forecasts. In June, the BoC became the first G7 central bank to begin easing policy.

"The market initially is taking it a little bit dovishly," said Michael Greenberg, head of Americas portfolio management, at Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions.

"The Canadian dollar sold off a little bit, bond yields (are) rallying a little bit - that suggests people are focusing more on some of the verbiage around excess supply, slowing demand and a cooling economy, which of course would suggest there's more rate cuts to come this cycle still," Greenberg said.

Investors see a roughly 50% chance of another rate cut at the next policy announcement in September and 43 basis points of additional easing in total this year.

The Canadian dollar was trading 0.1% lower at 1.3790 to the U.S. dollar, or 72.52 U.S. cents, after touching its weakest intraday level since April 17 at 1.3807. It was the currency's sixth straight day of declines.

A preliminary estimate showed Canadian factory sales falling 2.6% in June from May

The price of oil, one of Canada's major exports, rebounded from a six-week low, supported by large draws in U.S. crude and fuel stocks. U.S. crude oil futures were up 1.3% at $77.97 a barrel.

Canadian bond yields moved lower across the curve. The two-year was down 8.6 basis points at 3.620%, after earlier touching its lowest since May 2023 at 3.595%.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Rod Nickel)