A surprisingly weak US payrolls report provided a support for both the Canadian dollar and bond prices on Friday. The Canadian dollar was at C$1.2103 to the US dollar, or 82.64 US cents, up from pre data levels, but down slightly from Thursday's close at C$1.2096 to the US dollar, or 82.67 US cents. Only 110,000 new jobs were created in March in the United States, the smallest gain in eight months, and well below the 220,000 that economists had forecast.
In addition, both the January and February new-job totals were revised lower, suggesting that the US Federal Reserve may not need to raise interest rates as aggressively as the market had been factoring in. "Disappointing employment numbers have generally weighed on the US dollar, and the Canadian dollar is one of the currencies benefiting from the move," said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at Bank of Montreal.
Despite the pressure on the greenback, the Canadian dollar stayed in a close range, as has been the case in recent weeks. The Canadian dollar rose to around C$1.2065 after the data, but gave up some of those initial gains as analysts said some of the details - the US jobless rate declined to 5.2 percent from 5.4 percent - may not be so negative for the US currency after all.
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