United States Dollar vs Canadian (FX:USDCAD)
Forex Chart
2 Years : From May 2011 to May 2013
During New York morning trading on Friday, the Canadian dollar traded further higher against major currencies after the Statistics Canada released country's unemployment rate.
The unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent from 7.6 percent, only because a significant number of Canadians stopped looking for work, Statistics Canada reported.
There was little change in full-time and part-time employment in February.
Compared with February of 2011, employment was up by 121,000, or 0.7 percent, with the bulk of the increase occurring in the first half of the period.
In other economic news, Canada's trade surplus narrowed to C$2.1 billion from C$2.9 billion, as exports fell at a faster rate than imports.
Extending European session's uptrend, the loonie advanced further against the euro and the Japanese yen in today's morning deals. At 10:30 am ET, the loonie spiked up to new multi-month highs of 83.52 against the yen and 1.2960 versus the euro, which may be compared to yesterday's close of 82.39 and 1.3149, respectively. At present, the loonie is worth 1.2977 versus the euro and 83.29 against the yen.
After showing a sideways trading in Asian and European sessions, the Canadian unit edged up sharply against its Australian counterpart by about 8:30 am ET today. The loonie climbed to near a 2-month high of 1.0469 versus the Aussie at about 9:40 am ET from Thursday's closing value of 1.0544. The pair is currently trading near 1.0500.
The Canadian currency that touched a low of 0.9938 against the US dollar at around 7:00 am ET traded higher thereafter in today's New York morning deals. At 10:40 am ET, the loonie edged up to a new 1-week high of 0.9875 versus the greenback, compared to 0.9904 hit late New York Thursday. Presently, the pair is worth 0.9893.
The U.S. unemployment rate and the Non-farm Payrolls changes were also released in today's New York morning session.
The U.S. Labor Department reported that the economy added a net of 227,000 jobs in February, with a gain of 233,000 jobs in the private sector offsetting losses in public sector employment.
Furthermore the January spike in job creation was revised up to 284,000 from the 243,000 initially reported, while December's figures were revised up to 223,000 from 203,000.
The increases, however, were not large enough to bring down the unemployment rate, which held steady in February at 8.3 percent, as expected by most economists.
