By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com -- The Canadian Dollar traded choppily against its US counterpart today, touching both a weekly high and a weekly low vs. the greenback today, but ultimately edging lower against the USD.
The commodity-linked Canadian dollar was pressured by a pullback in crude prices and risk-aversion reflected in equities as a US government shutdown looms.
In addition, the loonie's losses today were "driven by month-end flows so far and also the weak GDP print,” said Bipan Rai, global head of FX strategy at CIBC (TSX:CM) Capital Markets.
Domestic GDP data for July showed the Canadian economy stagnating and lowered bets for an October rate hike from the Bank of Canada.
Money markets now see just a 25% chance of an October rate hike from the BoC.
The safe-haven US Dollar meanwhile rallied to a 10-month high against a basket of currencies as investors sought out less risky assets.
On a technical level for the pair, analysts at FX Street note, "The USD/CAD has recovered back to the topside of the 34-day Exponential Moving Average at the 1.3500 handle. Buyers will be looking to gain further ground towards the September peak near 1.3700, and put some distance between current prices and the 200-day SMA currently parked near 1.3450."
On a weekly basis, the Canadian dollar ended 0.6% lower, while on a monthly basis, the loonie was down 0.5% in September. On a quarterly basis, the loonie was down 2.5%.