The province of Alberta says it will seek management and employment pledges in order to allow the takeover of Canadian oil company Nexen by China’s CNOOC.

If a deal were to unravel it could hurt the CAD,

  1. because demand for the currency to fund the deal would need to be reversed and
  2. A hostile environment for foreign takeovers would be a structural hindrance (though small) on the CAD.

USD/CAD is trading in the upper end of the day’s range, supported by a very sharp drop in crude prices. WTI is below $89.00 now, more than 3% on the day.