A big disappointment in Canada: the coutnry lost 7K jobs. Canada was predicted to report a gain of 16.9K jobs in February, following a bigger gain of 29.4K in January. The unemployment rate was expected to stay unchanged at 7%. Canada’s trade balance was expected to remain negative, showing a deficit of 1.6 billion.
USD/CAD was on he defensive towards the publication, trading around 1.0980. It is up nearly 100 pips to 1.1070 after the poor figures.
More data: the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7K as expected. Canada’s participation rate stands at 66.2% after 66.3% beforehand.
The good news comes from the composition: 25.9K part time jobs were lost, while full time jobs were actually gained: 18.9K.
More good news come from Canada’s trade balance which showed a smaller than expected deficit: 0.2 billion instead of 1.6 billion expected.
At the same time, the US also released its labor numbers, the Non-Farm Payrolls. Needless to say, this has a huge impact. The US NFP surprised to the upside with +175K.
Earlier in the week, the Bank of Canada still left a warning about inflation despite some stronger than expected numbers. The weaker Canadian dollar certainly helps in fighting deflation.
The US dollar was on the defensive throughout the day.
1.10 is naturally a resistance line, and it’s followed by 1.1050 and 1.1111. CAD/USD at 0.90 is 1.1111. The pair is getting closer. Support is at 1.0870. For more, see the CAD forecast.
