Canadian dollar loses some ground to both EUR and GBP

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

US Dollar             1.2650-1.2750

Euro                     1.4250-1.4350

Sterling                1.7050-1.7150

The US Dollar index is again marginally weaker this morning as yesterday some of the voting Federal Reserve members played down the need for the Fed to dramatically increase interest rates this year to fight inflation. Investors took this as a sign that there may be some discourse among Fed members about the number and size of interest rate hikes this year.

The Canadian Dollar is marginally stronger this morning but it was not able to take as much advantage of the weaker Greenback as the other currencies did. The Loonie lost a bit of ground to both the Euro and Pound as those currencies were much stronger overnight.

Up today there is two items on the calendar that will interest Canadian Dollar traders, the GDP report for November and the start of the OPEC meeting that is going to vote on production increases going forward. With the price of oil now forecast to hit $100 a barrel it will be very interesting to see if OPEC will dramatically increase production to slow that price rise.

Stocks are pointing to a small decline on the opening after a strong day yesterday, In Ukraine the rhetoric continues and markets remain nervous about Russian intent, volatility will remain high.