The Canadian dollar weakened against its US counterpart on Thursday as oil prices fell, while Wall Street losses also weighed on the commodity-linked currency as traders braced for a possible surprise in Friday's Canadian jobs data. Oil settled lower as rising exports from Iraq underlined a global supply glut and a pipeline outage had a modest impact on US crude inventories. The Canadian currency settled at C$1.3144 to the greenback, or 76.08 US cents, weaker than Wednesday's close of C$1.3094, or 76.37 US cents.
The currency's strongest level of the session was C$1.3019, while its weakest was C$1.3181. "People are nervous, they're trading smaller positions," said David Bradley, a director of foreign exchange trading at Scotiabank, citing uncertainty on the pace of further Federal Reserve rate hikes and the outlook for oil prices, and the risk that Britain leaves the European Union after a vote due in June. Canada's labor market report is expected to show 10,000 jobs were added in March, rebounding from a decline in the previous month. US crude settled down 1.3 percent at $37.26 a barrel. The Canadian dollar may pull back in coming months because of the prospect of Fed rate hikes and less-robust domestic economic data, a Reuters poll showed.
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