The Canadian dollar strengthened to a seven-week high against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday after data showing a pickup in underlying inflation tempered bets that the Bank of Canada would cut interest rates over the coming months. Canada's annual inflation rate rose 2.2% as expected in November on the back of higher energy prices, while the average of the Bank of Canada's three measures of core inflation rose to 2.2% from 2.1%, data from Statistics Canada showed. "It does make for a more challenging environment to follow some of the other central banks in easing," said Robert Both, a macro strategist at TD ... (full story)