The Canadian dollar today rallied against its US counterpart after the release of jobs reports from both countries that beat expectations. The USD/CAD currency pair spiked briefly after the release of the US non-farm payrolls, but headed lower shortly thereafter as the loonie recovered.
The USD/CAD currency pair today dropped from an Asian session high of 1.3492 before dropping to a low of 1.3419 in the early American session.
The currency pair was in a consolidative phase at the start of today’s session as markets reacted to yesterday’s disappointing US ISM manufacturing PMI data. A rally in crude oil prices as tracked by the West Texas Intermediate, which hit a high of — today, also boosted the loonie. The release of the Canadian labour force survey for December by Statistics Canada triggered the loonie’s latest rally. The Canadian unemployment rate came in at 5.6%, which was lower than the expected 5.7% print. The country also added 9,300 jobs in December versus the expected 5,000 jobs, which also boosted the loonie.
The release of the US non-farm payrolls data for December by the Bureau of Labor Statistics triggered the brief spike by the currency pair. The non-farm payrolls came in at 312,000 new jobs, which was almost double the expected 177,000 new jobs. However, the spike was short-lived as the loonie quickly recovered allowing the pair to extend its downtrend.
The currency pair’s short-term performance is likely to be affected by the Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech scheduled for 15:15 GMT today.
The USD/CAD currency pair was trading at 1.3439 as at 14:45 GMT having dropped from a high of 1.3492. The CAD/JPY currency pair was trading at 80.79 having rallied from a low of 79.72.
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