Loonie on par with US for first

Canada's dollar dropped for a third straight week in the longest stretch of losses since June as concern the global economy is slowing encouraged demand for the greenback as a refuge. The loonie, as the currency is nicknamed, slid last Tuesday to parity with the US dollar for the first time since February as crude oil prices fell and Canada's trade deficit widened. Government bonds rallied, pushing the ten-year note yield on Thursday to a record low. "Like most markets, we had a fairly volatile week, and the Canadian dollar wasn't excluded," said Camilla Sutton, head of currency strategy in Toronto at Bank of Nova Scotia's Scotia Capital. "Even though we've seen tremendous intraday activity, we're not that far from where we started five days ago."