* Canadian dollar at 1.2990 to the greenback, or 76.98 U.S. cents
* Bond prices slip across the maturity curve (Updates to afternoon)
By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed
Nov 9 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar rose against its U.S. counterpart on Monday to a more than 2-year high, as investors' appetite for riskier currencies surged following news of a promising coronavirus vaccine development.
At 3:45 EST (2045 GMT), the Canadian dollar CAD= was trading 0.5% higher at 1.2990 to the greenback, or 76.98 U.S. cents. The currency's strongest level of the session was 1.2928, its strongest since October 2018.
Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) PFE.N on Monday said its experimental vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 based on initial data from a large study, a major victory in the fight against a pandemic that has killed over 1 million people, roiled the world's economy and upended daily life. and BioNTech are the first drugmakers to show successful data from a large-scale clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine.
The news sent global stock markets and other risky assets soaring while safe-haven currencies such as the Japanese yen JPY= and the Swiss franc CHF= both fell more than 1%.
Risk sentiment was also supported by hopes of improved prospects for global trade after Democrat Joe Biden clinched the tightly-fought U.S. presidential election. Canadian dollar smashed through the 1.30 mark this morning, gapping upward on a broad improvement in global risk appetite," said Karl Schamotta, chief market strategist at Cambridge Global Payments.
"Biden's win and news of a potential vaccine are unleashing the “animal spirits” that drive economic activity - by making citizens more likely to spend and businesses more likely to invest, growth could accelerate materially into the winter months," he said.
The loonie was further helped by a big surge in the price of oil, Canada's largest export.
Oil surged about 8% on Monday, its biggest daily gain in more five months, on news of the vaccine. government bond yields were higher across the curve, with the 10-year CA10YT=RR up 11.1 basis points at 0.76%.