Canadian Dollar And Business Outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, July 8 (CNS Canada) The Canadian dollar weakened slightly against its US counterpart Friday morning, falling in sympathy with an unfavourable Canadian jobs report.

Canada lost a net 700 jobs in June, according to Statistics Canada. Expectations were for a gain of 5,000 jobs.

However, the national unemployment rate fell to 6.8 per cent from 6.9 per cent, limiting the loonie’s losses.

In the meantime, global markets rallied on US jobs data, weighing on the Canadian dollar.

The US Labor department reported 287,000 jobs were added last month, exceeding previous expectations of the total reaching 175,000 jobs.

Despite the positive report, the outlook for US interest rates hasn’t waivered, which are expected to be on hold for at least a year, an analyst said.

At 8:48 a.m. CDT Friday, the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7673 or US$=C$1.3033, which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$0.7690 or US$1=C$1.3003.

The TSX was up 124.07 points, or 0.88 per cent, at 8:48 a.m. CDT Friday morning to sit at 14,258.53.