TORONTO, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart on Friday as the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus variant weighed on global equity markets and the greenback broadly climbed. The loonie was trading 0.8% lower at 1.2875 to the greenback, or 77.67 U.S. cents, its biggest decline since Nov. 26. For the week, the Canadian currency was down 1.2%. "It"s like a one-two punch," said Mazen Issa, senior FX strategist at TD Securities. "Equity sentiment is off ... and the (U.S.) dollar is really catching a bid." The U.S. dollar (.DXY) rose as traders retreated from riskier currencies amid rising Omicron cases and after the Federal Reserve signaled on Wednesday it could hike interest rates three times next year. read more Stocks globally (.WORLD) fell and the price of oil , one of Canada"s major exports, settled 2.1% lower at $70.86 a barrel. read more The Bank of Canada has also turned more hawkish, with money markets seeing a 40% chance that the central bank would hike interest rates as soon as next month. But that has not helped the loonie. read more "We think January is a live meeting," Issa said. "Despite that pricing in of event risk ... the CAD can"t buy a bid." Foreign investors bought a net C$23.9 billion in Canadian securities in October, led by private corporate bonds and federal government bonds, Statistics Canada said. read more Canadian government bond yields were mixed across a flatter curve. The 10-year rate touched its lowest level since Sept. 23 at 1.302% before recovering to 1.328%, down about half a basis point on the day. Publication of the Canadian dollar offered rate (CDOR), Canada"s primary interest rate benchmark, should end after June 2024, the working group helping to transition Canadian financial markets to risk-free benchmark interest rates said on Thursday. read more