The Canadian dollar fell today as the employment reports from Canada and the US, the largest Canada’s trading partner, were worse than predicted, decreasing demand for the Canadian currency.
The Canadian employment grew by 15,000 in November, following the 3,000 growth in the month before. The market participants expected the increase by 20,200 jobs. The unemployment rate decreased, though, from 7.9 percent to 7.6 percent. The Canadian currency was more influenced, perhaps, by the US nonfarm payrolls, which rose only by 39,000 instead of expected 143,000, and by the US unemployment rate, which unexpectedly rose from 9.6 percent to 9.8 percent.
The poor employment data reduces chance for the interest rates hike, further weakening the Canadian currency. Still, despite the today’s decline the Canadian dollar managed to post the weekly gain against the US dollar and the euro. It was the first weekly gain versus the greenback after three weeks of declines.
USD/CAD went up from the opening level of 1.0025 to close at 1.0032 after it reached the intraday high level of 1.0079. EUR/CAD jumped from 1.3239 to 1.3456.
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