OTTAWA (CP) - The loonie showed it has no sense of humour Monday, sinking under the weight of a prank Internet report that federal Finance Minister Paul Martin was quitting politics to breed cattle and ducks.
The April Fool's Day gag, which began on a political Web site, quickly spread to financial markets and took a major bite out of the wobbly Canadian dollar. And the fact the dollar didn't recover once the truth came out shows how eager currency traders are to bet against the buck, said a Toronto analyst.
Much of the damage to the currency was attributed to the reaction of one serious analyst who was taken in by the prank, said Steve Saldanha, a currency specialist with TD Bank Group.