Business
Loonie, peso pace world currencies
Loonie, peso pace world currencies
About this update from Suncor Energy Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\nLoonie, peso pace world currencies\n\n\n Apr. 5, 2010 (Baystreet.ca) -- Mexico's peso and Canada's dollar are outperforming all other major currencies for the first time since at least 1998 and probably will keep rallying as the U.S. recovery lifts the rest of the world's largest trading bloc, according to Bloomberg News. The currencies gained 5.9% and 3.7% against the greenback in 2010's opening months, rising in tandem with the Intercontinental Exchange Inc.'s Dollar Index for a second-straight quarter for the first time in 11 years. Hedge funds and large speculators are the most bullish on the peso and Canada's loonie since at least April 2008, before the credit crisis swamped Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. five months later, driving both down as much as 31%. As U.S. stimulus efforts totaling as much as $8.2 trillion U.S. lift demand for Mexican engine parts from Alfa SAB in Monterrey and Canadian oil from Suncor Energy Inc. in Alberta, the strength of all three countries' currencies is demonstrating the North American Free Trade Agreement's benefits. By contrast, ballooning deficits in Greece, Spain and Portugal weighed on the currency of the world's biggest monetary union as the euro fell 5.7% versus the dollar in the first quarter. The peso and the loonie topped all 13 other most traded currencies tracked by Bloomberg in January, February and March. The duo and the Dollar Index gained an average of 4.5% in the first quarter, the most since 1977. Last year, the greenback fell 14.9% in nine months against the euro, yen, pound, Swiss franc, loonie and Swedish krona, the Dollar Index's fastest decline since 1987. Mexico's currency will rise another 2.4% to 12 per dollar by Dec. 31, from 12.2914 today, according to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the first quarter's most accurate peso forecaster along with Royal Bank of Canada, which sees it strengthening 4.6% to 11.75 in a year. The loonie, nicknamed for the aquatic bird on Canada's $1 coin, will gain 1.1% to reach parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time since July 2008, and then appreciate three Canadian cents more by Dec. 31, according to Standard Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia, two of the first quarter's three top forecasters on the currency. It climbed as much as 0.6% to $1.0052 today.\n\n\n\n\n","length":2530,"tagName":"div"}]