The Canadian employment report was not nearly as good as the US one. As a result, the Canadian dollar dropped against the US dollar, touching the lowest level since July 2009. Surprisingly enough, the loonie managed to log gains against such major currencies as the euro and the Japanese yen.
Canadian employment shrank by 10,700 in November from October, according to the Statistics Canada, even though specialists expected growth. As a result, the unemployment rate inched up by 0.1 percentage point to 6.6 percent.
Employment data was not the only Canadian indicators that missed expectations. The trade balance surplus narrowed in October while analysts predicted an increase.
Considering that the US employment report was stellar, it is not surprising to see that the loonie dropped against the greenback. What is a surprise is the fact that the Canadian dollar managed to trim its losses and even gained against other majors.
According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report, the number of short positions on the Canadian dollar by leveraged funds exceeded the number of long positions as of December 2.
USD/CAD climbed from 1.1384 to close at 1.1431, reaching the high of 1.1476 intraday. At the same time, EUR/CAD declined from 1.4090 to 1.4049, and CAD/JPY advanced from 105.17 to 106.22 — the highest settlement since July 2008.
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