Canada’s dollar fell for a second week versus its U.S. counterpart on concern slowing global economic growth will weigh on demand for raw materials and increase risk aversion. The currency fluctuated today amid volatile stock markets after data showed the economy of the U.S., the nation’s largest trading partner, added more jobs last month than forecast and Canada added jobs for a fourth month. Crude oil, the nation’s biggest export, fell for a second week. “The initial euphoria over the better-than-expected U.S. employment report has already started to fade,” said Joe Manimbo, a market analyst in Washington at Travelex Global Business Payments, a currency-exchange network. “That is pressuring some of those commodity-sensitive currencies.” The loonie, as the currency is called for the image of the waterfowl on the C$1 coin, declined 2.8 percent this week. It fell 0.1 percent to 98.20 cents per U.S. dollar at 5 p.m. in Toronto after strengthening earlier to as much as 97.42 cents and falling to 98.54. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0183. Government bonds fell, pushing the yield on Canada’s benchmark 10-year note 13 basis points higher to 2.64 percent. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. The 3.25 percent security maturing in June 2021 fell $1.20 to C$105.28. Jobs Data U.S. payrolls increased 117,000 jobs after a revised 46,000 rise in June, government data showed. The media estimate in a Bloomberg News survey projected a gain of 85,000. The Canadian economy added fewer jobs than forecast in July, increasing 7,100 on a seasonally adjusted basis, Statistics Canada reported. It was the fourth straight monthly gain and compared with a Bloomberg survey forecast of 15,000 and an increase of 28,400 in June. The jobless rate fell to 7.2 percent, from 7.4 percent in June. “It was slightly weaker than expected on the headline,” said Camilla Sutton, head of currency strategy at Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto. “But some of the details highlight that some of the losses were in education, which is a seasonal adjustment factor.” The Canadian dollar fell yesterday after the Bank of Japan followed its Swiss counterpart in moving to weaken its currency. Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda saying the Japanese action was unilateral following joint yen sales by Group of Seven nations in March. The Swiss National Bank cut its target for the three- month London interbank offered rate to “as close to zero as possible” to curb the franc’s gains. Stocks Drop The loonie dropped versus 12 of its 16 most-traded counterparts this week as the MSCI World Index, a measure of stocks in developed nations, tumbled 8.6 percent. Crude oil futures rose 0.6 percent to $87.15 a barrel in New York and fell 8.9 percent for the week. The yield on the December 2011 bankers’ acceptances, a barometer of short-term interest rate expectations, fell to 1.16 percent, the lowest since the contract started trading in December 2008, as traders slashed bets the central bank would raise rates amid slowing global growth. The Bank of Canada has held the benchmark overnight rate at 1 percent since September after raising it three times last year. Governor Mark Carney said July 20 the central bank won’t be “mechanical” in raising rates during the recovery, because of the risks posed by a strong currency and slow U.S. growth. The central bank published a note that day that said interest rates can remain below their long-run average even after the economy recovers, if economic “headwinds” are slowing growth. To contact the reporter for this story: Joe Ragazzo in New York at jragazzo@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

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