TORONTO (Reuters), – On Friday, the Canadian dollar strengthened against its greenback as preliminary domestic data revealed that wholesale trade rose in January. Currency traders also reacted to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by reducing some large movements.

Investors welcomed Western sanctions that were directed at Russia but didn’t block its access to a global payments system, and left their energy sector unaffected. The U.S. dollar was a safe haven and fell against other major currencies.

Canada’s main export, oil, saw some gains in recent times, as oil futures dropped 1.1% to $91.76/barrel.

Investors don’t believe that Ukraine’s outbreak of war will deter the Bank of Canada lowering interest rates the week following, as it has done since October 2018.

Markets expect that the central banks will increase its policy rate by 25bps to 0.50% when it announces its next policy Wednesday. This is in addition to six other times this year, to reduce inflation.

The increase in sales of building material and other supplies as well machinery equipment, an estimate by Statistics Canada revealed that Canadian wholesale trade increased 3.9% over December.

Canadian dollars gained 0.3% to 1.2775 for greenback (or 78.28 U.S. Cents) after trading within a range from 1.2754- 1.2820.

The currency reached 1.2877 on Thursday, its lowest intraday value in over two months. The currency was expected to fall 0.2% over the course of the week.

The curve showed that Canadian government bonds yields were more than the U.S. Treasuries.

While the 10-year rate increased 2.2 basis points, it remained at 1.942%. It is still below its three-year peak of 1.995%.