CAD Rises After Strong Employment in September

October 10, 2014 Share Print 0

The Canadian dollar rose versus most of its major counterparts after a report showed the nation’s jobless rate fell to a six-year low on the biggest monthly increase in employment since May 2013.

The currency strengthened after job creation more than tripled the average forecast of private sector economists and the economy created a record number of private sector jobs in September. The rise in payrolls comes after the country lost jobs the previous month and reports last week showed gross domestic product growth stalled in July and the country posted an unexpected trade deficit in August.

“The Bank of Canada has been talking about weakness in the labor market as an indicator of slack,” said Andrew Kelvin, senior fixed-income strategist at Toronto-Dominion Bank, by phone. “If you take them at their word on that, they have to regard this as a sign there’s less slack than maybe they believed a month ago. The prospect of a little bit quicker tightening, marginally speaking, implies a stronger Canadian dollar.”

The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is known for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, was little changed at C$1.1191 per U.S. dollar at 9:41 a.m. in Toronto. One loonie buys 89.36 U.S. cents. The currency has strengthened 0.5 per cent this week and is down 5.1 per cent this year.

The unemployment rate fell to 6.8 per cent last month, the lowest since December 2008 and down from 7 per cent a month earlier, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. The economy created 74,100 jobs, the majority in full-time employment, after recording a decline of 11,000 jobs in August. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a 20,000 job increase and an unchanged unemployment rate, according to median forecasts.

via Montreal Gazette

This article is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Corporation or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. Leveraged trading is high risk and not suitable for all. You could lose all of your deposited funds.

Bio
Twitter
Google+
Latest Posts

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.