The Canadian dollar slid today after a report showed that employment fell in Canada last month, adding to concerns about slowing economic growth in the country. The currency fell even as other macroeconomic data was rather positive.
Canadian employment fell 21,900 in December, being much worse even than the pessimistic forecast that has promised growth by 4,500. At the same time, the number of people looking for work declined, pushing the unemployment rate down by 0.1 percentage point to 7.0 percent. Another positive piece of data was the trade balance report that showed a decrease of the trade deficit from C$1.7 billion in November to C$901 million in December.
The general market sentiment was a bit mixed and did not help the loonie to choose direction. The fundamental data from the United States was good, improving the traders’ mood, but concern about yesterday’s comments of European Central Bank President Mario Draghi was still spoiling risk appetite.
USD/CAD rose from 0.9976 to 1.0026 as of 20:19 GMT today. EUR/CAD went up from 1.3366 to 1.3398 and its daily high was at 1.3429. CAD/JPY edged down from 93.80 to 92.48, touching the low of 92.00 intraday.
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