The Canadian dollar slid for a sixth straight session, with traders focusing on two familiar pressure points: oil-market uncertainty and growing attention to CUSMA/USMCA review risk.
The loonie often trades like a hybrid: part currency, part commodity proxy. When oil gets shaky—or the outlook for energy demand and supply turns foggy—Canada’s terms-of-trade story can weaken, and the currency tends to feel it. Even if crude doesn’t collapse, uncertainty alone can be enough to keep buyers cautious.
The second factor is more political than economic: the prospect of turbulence around the next CUSMA/USMCA review. Canada’s economy is deeply tied to U.S. trade flows, so anything that raises the risk of tariffs, tighter rules, or negotiation brinkmanship can create a “risk premium” against the loonie—especially when investors already prefer the perceived safety of the U.S. dollar.
Bottom line: the loonie’s losing streak isn’t just about a single data point. It’s about a market looking at Canada through two lenses—energy volatility today and trade uncertainty tomorrow—and choosing to step back.
