The Canadian dollar weakened against its US counterpart on Friday after data showed the domestic economy unexpectedly shed 700 jobs and US employment growth surged in June. The currency hit is weakest level since June 28 shortly after the release of the data before trimming losses to settle at C$1.3040, or 76.69 US cents, compared with Thursday's official Bank of Canada close of C$1.3003, or 76.91 US cents.
"Even though they probably haven't got enough ammunition to trigger a rate cut, they should still be very cautious, not just on today's employment report but the really terrible set of indicators we had earlier this week," said Mark Chandler, head of Canadian fixed income and currency strategy at RBC Capital Markets. Canadian government bond prices were mostly higher across the maturity curve, though the two-year price slipped half a Canadian cent to yield 0.468 percent. The benchmark 10-year gained 20 Canadian cents to yield 0.958 percent. The Canada-US two-year bond spread was 14.1 basis points, while the 10-year spread was -39.8 basis points.