BLBG:Canadian Dollar Rises As Stock Futures Gain Before Jobs Report
Canada’s dollar strengthened versus its U.S. counterpart amid advances in stock-index futures and commodities before America’s Labor Department releases its report on July nonfarm payrolls.
The currency rose by the most in five days and is headed for a fourth consecutive weekly advance. Payrolls climbed by 100,000 workers following an 80,000 increase in June, according to the median forecast of 89 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Canada’s currency is approaching one-for-one with the greenback, a level it last traded at in May.
“It seems very likely we’ll hit parity ahead of NFP,” Sebastien Galy, a senior foreign-exchange strategist at Societe Generale SA, said by phone from New York. “We’re positioned for a positive surprise. People are going to take profit afterwards.”
Canada’s currency, nicknamed the loonie, appreciated 0.5 percent to C$1.0024 per U.S. dollar at 7:46 a.m. in Toronto. One Canadian dollar buys 99.77 cents.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.9 percent. Crude-oil futures rose 0.9 percent to $88.07 a barrel in New York. Crude is Canada’s largest export.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Halifax at cfournier3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Robert Burgess at bburgess@bloomberg.net