The appeal of the Pound might have been dampened by some less-than-impressive UK industrial output reports, but the British currency still emerged triumphantly against the Canadian Dollar as the commodity driven asset plummeted against its rivals following the release of shocking employment figures.
Economists had expected the Canadian economy to add 14,000 positions in December after gaining 21,000 positions in November. However, the number of employed Canadians actually plummeted by 45,000 last month, driving the unemployment rate to 7.2 per cent from 6.9 per cent.
The participation rate held at 66.4.
Before the employment figures were published the Canadian Dollar was trading close to a four-year low against its US counterpart and forex expert Brad Schruder observed; ‘We saw weak trade, weak manufacturing and the central bank following up by saying we have no timeline to raise rates anytime soon. That’s like the trifecta of death for the Loonie’.
However, while this concerning employment report caused the Canadian Dollar to broadly soften, declines against the ‘Greenback’ were limited by the news that US employment also fell wildly short of forecasts, a circumstance which might cause the Federal Reserve to think twice about tapering stimulus further when it meets later this month.
As the US Dollar has been receiving underlying support based on the expectation that the Fed will continue tapering stimulus over the next few months, this development pulled the rug out from under the safe-haven currency’s feet.
The rise in payrolls was the slowest since 2011.
Although the US unemployment rate fell to 6.7 per cent, the lowest since 2008, the participation rate edged lower.
Before the close of local trading additional CAD/GBP movement could be triggered by the publication of UK GDP data for December.
Next week Canadian reports to look out for include existing home sales and international securities transactions.
Current Canadian Dollar (CAD) Exchange Rates:
< Down > Up
The Canadian Dollar/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.9191 <
The Canadian Dollar /Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.6774 <
The Canadian Dollar/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.5575 <
The Canadian Dollar/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.0251 <
The Canadian Dollar /New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.1156 <
The Pound Sterling/Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.8012 >
The US Dollar/ Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.0911 >
The Euro/Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.4761 >
The New Zealand Dollar/Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8938 <
The Australian Dollar/Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.9754 >
(Correct as of 14:55 GMT)
Comments are closed.