* Loonie gains 0.2% against the greenback
* Canadian retail sales rise by 1.1% in March
* Price of U.S. oil falls 1.4%
* Canadian bond prices rise across the yield curve
By Fergal Smith
TORONTO, May 22 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar strengthened to a near one-month high against the greenback on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump told congress to prioritize a trade deal with Canada and Mexico, and as domestic data showed a jump in retail sales.
Canadian retail sales grew by 1.1% in March from February, due largely to higher sales at gasoline stations, Statistics Canada said. Sales volumes were more subdued, rising 0.3%. strong headline print coupled with some upward revisions to the prior month have markets bidding up the loonie and selling fixed income, though the reading shouldn't change the outlook very much," Royce Mendes, a senior economist at CIBC Capital Markets said in a note.
Trump told Democratic leaders on Tuesday to pass the United States-Mexico-Canada trade pact before working on an infrastructure bill. Last week, his administration announced it would remove U.S. tariffs on Canadian and Mexican steel and aluminum, a major hurdle to the passage of the trade agreement, but a number of Democrats have expressed concerns about other parts of the deal. 9:14 a.m. (1314 GMT), the Canadian dollar CAD=D4 was trading 0.2% higher at 1.3381 to the greenback, or 74.73 U.S. cents. The currency touched its strongest intraday level since April 23 at 1.3358.
Gains for the loonie came despite a drop in the price of oil, one of Canada's major exports, after industry data showed an increase in U.S. crude inventories and on demand concerns linked to a protracted trade war between China and the United States. U.S. crude oil futures CLc1 were down 1.4% at $62.24 a barrel. government bond prices were higher across the yield curve in sympathy with U.S. Treasuries. The two-year CA2YT=RR rose 2.5 Canadian cents to yield 1.671% and the 10-year CA10YT=RR climbed 19 Canadian cents to yield 1.741%.
On Tuesday, the 10-year yield touched its highest intraday since May 3 at 1.764%.