toronto june 21 reuters  the canadian dollar strengthened to a ninemonth high against its us counterpart on wednesday as oil prices rose and strongerthanexpected domestic retail sales data bolstered bets for an additional bank of canada interest rate hike canadian retail sales climbed 11 in april beating the median forecast for a 02 increase and will likely post another gain in may statistics canada data showed this data reinforces the case for a bank of canada rate hike in july said tony valente senior fx dealer at ascendantfx the canadian consumer’s spending power remains strong in the face of tightening economic conditions the bank of canada agreed that the need for further rate hikes would be determined by fresh economic data after it lifted rates to a 22year high of 475 earlier this month minutes from the central banks policy meetings showed money markets see a 72 chance that the boc will tighten further at the next policy decision on july 12 up from 64 before the data the canadian dollar was trading 06 higher at 13160 to the greenback or 7599 us cents after touching its strongest intraday level since september at 13158 adding to support for the loonie the price of oil  one of canadas major exports settled 19 higher at 7253 a barrel and the us dollar fell against a basket of major currencies after comments by federal reserve chair jerome powell failed to live up to the more hawkish market expectations canadian government bond yields rose across the curve the 2year yield was up 59 basis points at 4641 while the gap between it and the us 2year narrowed by 5 basis points to 66 basis points in favor of the us bond