US dollar has been depreciating in value and will continue to do so over time. How come then is the Canadian dollar (at least recently in the short term) not having its value rise vs the US dollar? euro, australian dollar is rising like crazy. Is it because Canada is deciding to lower interest rates while Europe/AU is holding steady? Even so... it shouldn't be so holding so steady. I would assume since Canada is a natural resource centered nation, it would have a relatively more stable currency with respect to "absolute value." http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=USD&to=CAD&submit=Convert Also, what would be the best way to invest in canadian dollars from the US? There is an ETF, FXC but thats such low volume and high expense ratio.
Over 80% of Canada's trade is with the US. If the American economy goes in the toilet, no amount of natural resource demand from China or India will offset the impact. The higher C$ has also decimated the export industry. All these effects are only recently starting to show up in the data and the currency is starting to reflect that.
I've asked the same question. The British Pound is also not rising in recent months. There appears to be the most strength in the Euro. I think this is because the market is predicting (correctly or incorrectly) that the Euro is going to become the world's currency, and thus deserves to be priced at a premium. But that's only my guess and I welcome any other ideas.
I still think CAD is a great buy. It's a matter of supply and demand. If Fed prints a trillions dollars and uses it to buy Canadian goods, eventually USD will have to fall.