The USD/CAD currency pair today declined to new lows after the release of mixed employment reports from both the USA and Canada. The currency pair was on a downward trend from earlier in the session after President Donald Trump exempted Canada and Mexico from the new steel and aluminum tariffs.
The USD/CAD currency pair lost over 85 points to decline from a high of 1.2908 to a low of 1.2821 at the time of writing.
The pair’s decline was triggered by the Canadian dollar gaining ground against its US counterpart after fears of an all-out trade war dissipated following President Donald Trump‘s actions. The commodity-linked loonie was also initially boosted by the positive investor sentiment towards crude oil prices as tracked by the West Texas Intermediate. The release of the February Canadian labour force survey by Statistics Canada also contributed to the pair’s decline. Canada reported a unemployment rate of 5.8%, which was lower than the expected 5.9% rate. The country’s net change in employment came in at 15,400, which was slightly lower than the consensus estimate of 21,000 new jobs.
The positive US change in non-farm payrolls released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics could not reverse the pair’s decline as the greenback was weighed down by the slow growth in average hourly earnings. The high unemployment rate also weighed down the greenback.
Given the upcoming weekend, the currency pair’s future direction is likely to be influenced by political events.
The USD/CAD currency pair was trading at 1.2827 as at 15:53 GMT having dropped from a high of 1.2908. The CAD/JPY currency pair was trading at 83.40 having rallied from a low of 82.57.
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