The Canadian dollar recouped all of its losses this week against the US dollar on Friday, as US oil prices bounced back from some of the previous session's steep drop. At 4 pm EDT (2000 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading C$1.3656 to the greenback, or 73.23 US cents, up 0.8 percent, according to Reuters data. The price of oil, one of Canada's major exports, bounced back from levels not seen in five months, on the likelihood that key producers could extend output cuts beyond an agreed-on June deadline.
US crude prices were up 1.54 percent to $46.47 a barrel. The currency weakened after data showed Canadian employers added 3,200 jobs last month, short of economists' forecasts for a gain of 10,000. The unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 6.5 percent from 6.7 percent, the lowest since October 2008. That followed a string of robust job gains over the past few months. But tame wage growth added to the reasons for the Bank of Canada to stay sidelined, said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.
"It's not getting any indication of pressure on the inflation front, and they are still concerned about potential trade protectionism emerging in the US, so I think they stay cautious," he said.
US President Donald Trump said last week that he would terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico if negotiations on the accord became "unserious." The currency's strongest level of the session was C$1.3643, while it touched its weakest since February 2016 at C$1.3793. Canadian government bond prices were mixed across the yield curve, with the two-year price flat to yield 0.684 percent and the benchmark 10-year falling 4 Canadian cents to yield 1.543 percent.
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