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Canadian dollar strengthens 0.1% against the greenback

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Trades in a range of 1.3572 to 1.3608

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Price of U.S. oil settles 0.3% lower

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Canadian bond yields ease across flatter curve

By Fergal Smith

TORONTO, March 27 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar

strengthened on Wednesday against its U.S. counterpart but the

move was limited as investors awaited domestic gross domestic

product data that could guide expectations for the start of Bank

of Canada interest rate cuts.

The loonie was trading 0.1% higher at 1.3575 to the

U.S. dollar, or 73.66 U.S. cents, after trading in a range of

1.3572 to 1.3608.

It was the third straight day of little movement for the

currency since Friday when it touched a three-month low at

1.3614.

"We run a fair model and that fair value model is basically

bang on where the market is right now. So I feel like everything

is in balance at this point," said Amo Sahota, director at

Klarity FX in San Francisco.

Canadian GDP data, due on Thursday, is expected to show the

economy growing 0.4% in January from December.

"There is some danger there that if GDP comes in a little

softer than anticipated it might be enough to push USD-CAD out

of this little range," Sahota said. "The Bank of Canada keeps

telling us that growth is slow."

Money markets expect the Canadian central bank to leave its

benchmark interest rate on hold at a 22-year high of 5% at a

policy decision on April 10 but to then begin a rate cutting

campaign in June.

The price of oil, one of Canada's major exports,

settled 0.3% lower at $81.35 a barrel after data showed a

surprise increase in U.S. stockpiles. Prices have retreated

since climbing last week to their highest levels since October.

Canadian government bond yields moved lower across a flatter

curve. The 10-year was down 4.2 basis points at

3.457%.