Loonie declines after weak inflation data

The Canadian dollar fell against most major rivals following forecast-missing data and amid the ongoing banking crisis. 

Canadian Inflation

Earlier data showed Canada's consumer prices rose 0.4% m/m in February, while analysts expected a 0.5% increase.

Core inflation rose 4.8% y/y, also missing estimates of a 4.9% increase.

CAD/USD fell 0.3% to 0.7392 as of 19:48 GMT.

The Dollar

The dollar index stabilized at 103.2 as of 19:39 GMT, with a session-high at 103.5, and a low at 103.00.

Eyes on Fed

Fed Chair Jerome Powell welcomed UBS's acquisition of Credit Suisse for 3 billion francs, in a deal to aims to restore stability to the banking sector.

After several days of the crisis, the Swiss National Bank intervened to offer liquidity of up to 50 billion francs to support Credit Suisse, which entered into intense negotiations with its main Swiss competitor UBS that ended in the acquisition deal.

The Fed is meeting this week to decide on policies, with most analysts expecting a 0.25% rate hike, but the Fed might surprise us and hold rates flat to calm the markets.

US two-year treasury yields rose by 24 basis points to 4.17%, while one year and three year yields rose by 24 and 20 basis points respectively, with 10-year yields rising by 10 points. 

Aussie

The Australian dollar fell against its US counterpart by 0.7% to 0.6667 as of 19:52 GMT.