The Canadian dollar slipped as US nonfarm payrolls disappointed Forex market participants, rising far less than was expected, and on reemerging concerns about the debt problems in Europe.
US nonfarm employment advanced by 120,000 jobs in March. That’s not a bad figure by itself, but it’s significantly below the market expectations of 207,000. On the bright side, the increase in the preceding month was revised upwardly and the unemployment rate unexpectedly went down from 8.3 percent to 8.2 percent. Unfortunately for riskier assets, traders paid more attention to the negative part of the report, making them prefer safety over higher yield.
Europe also hurt risk appetite as the rising borrowing costs in Spain cause the speculation that the country may request a bailout. That hasn’t surprised market analysts as many of them predicted that the delay of a default in Greece would only shift attention of investors to other indebted nations.
USD/CAD rose from 0.9930 to 0.9968 and EUR/CAD was up from 1.2974 to 1.3048. CAD/JPY went down from 82.89 to 81.80, while the daily minimum of 81.51 was the lowest since March 8.
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