Japanese Yen falls, as country's Central Bank seems to ignore inflation

Today's expected range for the Canadian Dollar against the major currencies:

US Dollar             1.2950-1.3050

Euro                     1.3600-1.3700

Sterling                1.5900-1.6000

WTI Oil (opening level) $117.00 (down $1.00 )

The US Dollar Index is stronger this morning as the Greenback was pushed higher from its gains against the Japanese Yen as that country's Central Bank announced that it would not increase its lending rat, this goes against what all other Western Central Banks are doing to combat inflation so the Yen has weakened off quite significantly. In fact, this week alone the US Federal Reserve, The Swiss National Bank and the Bank of England all increased their key lending rates to combat inflation.

The Canadian Dollar has trader weaker against most currencies over the last two days and now seems poised to try and break above the 1.3000 (0.7692) level in the coming sessions. We do not hear from the Bank of Canada until July 13th so the Loonie won't get any benefit from higher Canadian rates until then.

Stocks are pointing higher to start the day but that is of course after a couple of days of big selloffs. We do get some US secondary economic data out this morning and I am sure it won’t be long before a lot of this data starts to turn negative in light of the current economic situation. I look for the Canadian Dollar to trade slightly weaker over the coming days.