* Canadian dollar at C$1.3810 or 72.41 U.S. cents
* Bond prices lower across the maturity curve
TORONTO, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar strengthened
against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as crude oil prices
rose on output talks, while domestic data pointed to a shift
toward manufacturing as a driver of growth.
Oil prices rose as efforts led by Russia and Saudi Arabia to
broker a deal to freeze production levels and ease a global glut
turned to Iran. Its oil minister was to speak later Wednesday
morning about the producers' meeting.
U.S. crude CLc1 prices were up 1.72 percent to $29.54 a
barrel.
Stock market gains added to support for the risk-sensitive
commodity currency. .N .TO
Commercial borrowing by small businesses in Canada picked up
in December on strength in sectors such as manufacturing and
agriculture, data from PayNet showed.
At 9:32 a.m. EST (1432 GMT), the Canadian dollar CAD=D4
traded at C$1.3810 to the greenback, or 72.41 U.S. cents,
stronger than Tuesday's official close of C$1.3881, or 72.04
U.S. cents.
The currency's strongest level of the session was C$1.3784,
while its weakest was C$1.3899. On Tuesday, it touched its
strongest since Feb 4. at C$1.3707.
Canadian investors bought a record C$17.45 billion ($12.64
billion) worth of foreign securities in December, Statistics
Canada said.
Canadian government bond prices were lower across the
maturity curve, with the two-year CA2YT=RR price down 5.5
Canadian cents to yield 0.489 percent and the benchmark 10-year
CA10YT=RR falling 42 Canadian cents to yield 1.201 percent.
The curve steepened as the spread between the 2-year and
10-year yields widened by 1.8 basis points to 71.2 basis points,
indicating underperformance for longer-dated maturities. Last
week, the spread touched its tightest since January 2015 at 63.9
basis points on the flight to safety.
Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau on Tuesday
effectively conceded the government could not balance the budget
as quickly as promised, saying the return to surplus would be
achieved over the long term.
Also Tuesday, the British Columbia government projected a
budget surplus of C$264 million in fiscal 2016-17 and unveiled
measures to boost affordability in Vancouver's hot housing
market.