The Canadian dollar capped off a historic week with a sharp gain against the US currency on Friday, rising on a solid Canadian jobs report and another surge in oil prices. Bond prices turned lower after the upbeat Canadian jobs report and appeared to ignore a rally in the bigger US Treasury market.
The Canadian dollar closed at US $1.0704, valuing each US dollar at 93.42 Canadian cents, up from Thursday's close of US $1.0512, or 95.13 Canadian cents. Early in the session, the Canadian dollar hit US $1.0729, or 93.20 Canadian cents, which marked the currency's highest level since the late 1800s, when it was at US $2.78.
The surge in the dollar, which rallied all week along with oil prices and after a US Federal Reserve decision to lower interest rates, came after figures showed the Canadian economy gained six times more jobs than expected in October. The data also showed wages in Canada climbed 4 percent on the year and that the unemployment rate fell to a 33-year low of 5.8 percent in October from 5.9 percent in September.