Canadian Dollar Falls Amid US-Canada Trade War Concerns, Crude Oil Prices Slide

(RTTNews) - The Canadian dollar weakened against other major currencies in the Asian session on Monday amid concerns about a deepening U.S.-Canada trade war and sliding oil prices.

Following the breakdown of trade negotiations between the two nations on Friday, the U.S. levied 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods on Saturday.

Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, responded by announcing that the nation would start enforcing its own retaliatory tariffs on September 8. This weakens the commodity-linked Loonie, as does a decline in the price of crude oil.

After two days of advances, the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil declines, trading at about $84.80 per barrel during Asian hours.

Asian stock markets also traded lower amid continued uncertainty over the opening of the Strait of Hormuz after U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. naval blockade would remain in place until Iran is ready to make a deal.

Trump also announced crushing economic measures against Iran on a scale never seen before with an aim to isolate Iran and any nation supporting Iran would face similar consequences.

In the Asian trading now, the Canadian dollar fell to 4-day lows of 1.3799 against the U.S. dollar, 115.11 against the yen and 1.6079 against the euro, from last week's closing quotes of 1.3767, 115.11 and 1.6117, respectively. If the loonie extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 1.41 against the greenback, 112.00 against the yen and 1.62 against the euro.

Against the Australian dollar, the loonie slipped to nearly a 3-week low of 0.9898 from Friday's closing value of 0.9873. The loonie may test support around the 0.99 region.

Looking ahead, Canada manufacturing sales data for July and U.S. Chicago Fed national activity index for July are slated for release in the New York session.