Canada’s dollar gained against its U.S. counterpart as an unexpected decline in the nation’s jobless rate reported last week burnished the currency’s appeal. The rise was tempered by a drop in crude oil, the nation’s largest export. The loonie, as the Canadian currency is nicknamed for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, strengthened against the U.S. dollar after declining for six weeks, the longest losing streak since December 2007, and touched a one-week high versus the euro. The loonie appreciated 0.4 percent to 97.61 cents per U.S. dollar at 5 p.m. in Toronto, from 97.99 cents on June 10. It gained earlier as much as 0.5 percent to 97.51 cents. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0244. “Fundamentally Canada has done extremely well, and after the jobs report the Canadian dollar has strengthened especially on the crosses,” said Dean Popplewell, head analyst in Toronto at the online currency-trading firm Oanda Corp. “To pick up any momentum against the dollar, Canada would have to break through the 97 cent level, and on the topside all we’re seeing is orders to buy Canada around 98 cents.” Crosses are trades involving currencies other than the U.S. dollar. The loonie climbed as much as 0.5 percent versus the euro to touch C$1.3992, the strongest since June 2, before trading at C$1.4068, down less than 0.1 percent. It gained 0.3 percent to 82.20 yen, from 81.98 on June 10. The currency pared its rise against the U.S. dollar and erased gains versus the euro as crude oil for July delivery fell 2.4 percent to $96.91 a barrel in New York. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was 0.1 percent higher after climbing as much as 0.5 percent. Weighing on Loonie “We are continuing to see declines in crude oil, and that’s weighing on the loonie against the majors,” said Brian Dolan, chief strategist at FOREX.com, a unit of online currency trading firm Gain Capital in Bedminster, New Jersey. “The market is looking at oil and stocks today, and the U.S. dollar is down.” The greenback weakened versus 13 of its 16 most-traded counterparts before a report tomorrow forecast by economists in a Bloomberg News survey to show U.S. retail sales fell 0.5 percent in May, the first decline in 11 months. The U.S. is Canada’s biggest trade partner. Shorter-term government bonds fell, pushing the yield on Canada’s two-year benchmark up two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 1.46 percent. The 1.75 percent security due in March 2013 dropped 3 cents to C$100.49. Yields on 10-year notes were little changed at 3 percent. Jobless Rate Canada’s unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent last month from 7.6 percent in April, a Statistics Canada report showed on June 10 in Ottawa. Employers added a net 22,300 jobs last month after an increase of 58,300 in April. The median forecasts of economists surveyed by Bloomberg were for the jobless rate to hold at 7.6 percent and payrolls to gain 20,000 positions. “The Canadian dollar is still enjoying a little bit of a honeymoon from its employment number on Friday,” said Boris Schlossberg, director of research at online currency trader GFT Forex in New York. To contact the reporter on this story: Allison Bennett in New York at abennett23@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

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