BLBG: Canadian Dollar Rises as Employers Add More Jobs in April Than Forecast
Canada’s dollar advanced against its U.S. counterpart for the first time in five days, ending its longest losing streak since December, as a report showed employers added more jobs in April than economists forecast.
The loonie, as the currency is also known for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, was still headed for its biggest weekly decline since July as commodities tumbled. Raw materials including crude oil account for about half of Canada’s export revenue.
“It’s positive for the fundamental story,” Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at the capital markets unit of Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto, said before the report on hiring was released. “Right now currencies are trading on the broader move. I don’t think one Canadian employment print is going to be the driving force that shifts the current trend.”
The loonie appreciated 0.6 percent to 96.14 cents per U.S. dollar at 7:04 a.m. in Toronto, from 96.69 cents yesterday. The Canadian currency touched 94.46 cents on April 29, the strongest since November 2007.
Employers added a net 58,300 jobs in April after a decrease of 1,500 in the previous month, Statistics Canada said. The median forecast of 25 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for an increase of 20,000. The unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 7.6 percent.
To contact the reporter for this story: John Detrixhe in New York at jdetrixhe1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net