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Most of the move came after hawkish comments on Monday from Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Wilkins.

Bearish bets on the loonie had held near a record high as of June 6, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Reuters calculations showed on Friday.

Strengthening of the currency could put pressure on often-leveraged speculators to cover short positions and accelerate any move higher in the currency.

At 9:32 a.m. ET, the Canadian dollar was trading at 75.60 U.S. cents, up 0.7 per cent. The currency’s weakest level was C$1.3325, while it touched its strongest since April 13 at C$1.3226.

Gains for the loonie came even as prices of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, edged down after OPEC reported an increase in its production for May.

U.S. crude prices were down 0.22 per cent at $45.98 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar inched down as traders eyed the start of a two-day Federal Reserve meeting.

Canadian government bond prices were much lower across the yield curve, with the two-year down 12.5 Canadian cents to yield 0.911 per cent and the 10-year falling 58 Canadian cents to yield 1.549 per cent.

The 2-year yield touched its highest intraday since January 2015 at 0.914 per cent.

© Thomson Reuters 2017