The Dollar's Dance: Navigating Market Volatility Amidst Middle East Tensions and Canadian Dollar Shifts

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

US Dollar        1.3375-1.3475

Euro                1.4650-1.4750

Sterling           1.7050-1.7150

WTI Oil (opening level) $71.62

The US Dollar Index is marginally stronger this morning in what should be a quiet session as the US is closed to observe Martin Luther King Day. The dollar continues to benefit from the high interest rate for a longer period of time in the US environment but also now will pick up some strength as the Middle East conflict seems bent on expanding into Yemen, Stocks will remain volatile and the oil price will jump around quite a bit in the short-term.

The Canadian Dollar continues to give back the strength it picked up at the start of the year as USD.CAD has risen to open the week near the 1.3425 (0.7449) level which is the highest level for the currency pair since the middle of December and much higher than the levels near 1.3200 (0.7576) that we saw just after Christmas.

With the US holiday there is nothing of note on the calendar today, we do get the latest Bank of Canada business outlook survey this morning so we will get another glimpse of what is going on with the Canadian economy but it won't move the market. The highlight of the week will be tomorrow's Canadian inflation report which may get the Loonie moving.