U.S. dollar slide deepens as euro saps stocks

• Despite a U.S. holiday, the U.S. dollar dominated trading on Monday as it headed for a fourth day of declines, weakening against every major currency. The euro’s jump weighed on European stocks, while gold gained.

Bloomberg’s dollar index approached its lowest level in three years as the euro extended gains that have pushed it to the strongest since 2014. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index struggled, ending lower as the common currency provided a headwind to the region’s exporter-heavy gauge. Mexico’s peso was the big outperformer as emerging currencies gained, and the Canadian dollar closed at an average trading value of 80.50 cents US, up 0.53 of a U. S. cent.

The yuan touched a two- year high as the People’s Bank of China raised the currency’s fixing. West Texas oil fluctuated before climbing for a sixth day.

In Toronto, Canada’s main stock index made gains on the back of rising oil and gold prices, as well as gains in the healthcare sector.

The S& P/ TSX composite index advanced 63.63 points to 16,371.81 as shares of licensed marijuana producer Aphria Inc. gained more than 20 per cent on news it would acquire Broken Coast Cannabis Inc. The gold and energy sectors also performed well. Shortly after 4 p.m. ET, the February crude contract was up 51 cents to US$64.81 per barrel and the February gold contract was ahead by US$ 5.60 to US$1,340.50 an ounce.

Elsewhere in commodities, the March copper contract was up about 4.3 cents to roughly US$3.26 a pound and the February natural gas contract was down 6.9 cents to about US$3.13 per mmBTU.

The American dollar remains under pressure after capping five straight weeks of declines, even against a backdrop of solid U.S. growth. Traders appear to be more excited by potentially hawkish policy shifts from central banks in Europe and Japan, the improving political outlook in the euro area, and the synchronized nature of global expansion that’s also propelling emerging-market economies and assets.

The common currency — which already has momentum after last week’s progress toward a German government — got a further boost as economists polled in a monthly Bloomberg survey bumped up their 2018 outlook for euro- area growth to 2.2 per cent. That’s close to the decadehigh 2.4 per cent pace estimated for last year.