by ashokfor on 23 Aug 2008
The Canadian dollar has been particularly strong over the past two weeks. Yet, the recent spike in volatility looks more like profit taking than like the beginning of a new down trend. Indeed, I expect more dollar strength going forward. First, a severe U.S. dollar undervaluation is now likely to lead to a substantial improvement of the U.S. Balance of Payments through continued strong export performance. Second, with the world economy slowing down is reasonable to think that the demand for commodities will also begin to slow down. As a result of this, commodity sensitive currencies like the Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar will be particularly vulnerable. Finally, a significant shift of interest rate expectations in favor of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve is likely to help the U.S. dollar to rally further.