Canadian dollar, oil remain near highs for the year

The Canadian dollar and oil prices slipped in trading Friday, but remained near a three-month high.

The loonie, which rose above 77 cents Thursday, was down one third of a cent to 76.78 cents US in late afternoon. Three weeks ago, it was below 73 cents US and in January, it fell below 69 cents.

The U.S. Fed's signal that it will slow the pace of interest rate hikes has helped the Canadian dollar this week.

The rally paralleled the course of oil, which is also rebounding from lows in January.

Oil also remained close to its highs for the year. West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark North American contract, was down 89 cents to $39.31 US a barrel, after settling above $40 on Thursday. Brent, the international contract, was off seven cents at $41.47.

The announcement of a meeting to talk about an oil output freeze between OPEC and non-OPEC nations powered crude's rally this week.

It gained impetus from data that shows North American production has declined to November 2014 levels. Today's Baker Hughes rig count show another four drilling rigs shut down in the U.S. and 29 in Canada.

The TSX fell 124 points to 13,497 in the afternoon, hurt by a further slide in Valeant shares and relatively high core inflation.

Meanwhile, two U.S. indices have recovered their losses for the year. The Dow was up 120 points to 17,602 and the broader S&P index rose nine points to 2,049. Those levels are just above where they were in late December and the S&P has recovered from a 12 per cent drop in mid-February.

The Nasdaq rose 20 points to 4,795, but was still below its 2015 yearend level of 5,058.