The Canadian dollar today rallied against its Southern neighbour after the release of jobs data from both countries with some prints beating analysts’ estimates. The USD/CAD currency pair today printed news lows as US non-farm payrolls disappointed causing the greenback to lose ground against the loonie amid higher oil prices.
The USD/CAD currency pair today fell from a high of 1.3976 at the Asian open to a daily low of 1.3909 in the American session and was trading near these lows at the time of writing.
The currency pair headed lower at the start of today’s session as oil prices traded near their weekly highs as tracked by the West Texas Intermediate boosting the commodity-linked loonie. The currency pair was reeling from yesterday’s massive decline, which was the biggest single-day decline witnessed in the past six weeks. The release of the latest Canada labour force survey by Statistics Canada boosted the loonie as the unemployment rate came in 13% versus the expected 18%. The number of job losses totalled 1.99 million versus the consensus estimate of 4 million, also boosting the loonie.
The US non-farm payrolls report for April released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics also contributed to the pair’s decline. US job losses totalled 20.5 million, while the unemployment rate was 14.7% versus the expected 14%. The average hourly earnings in both countries improved, as did the labour force participation rate.
The currency pair’s performance over the upcoming weekend is likely to be affected by crude oil prices and geopolitical events.
The USD/CAD currency pair was trading at 1.3915 as at 16:29 GMT having fallen from a high of 1.3976. The CAD/JPY currency oar was trading at 76.56, having rallied from a low of 76.11.
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