Canadian Dollar Rallies on Upbeat Oil Prices, Ignores Weak Jobs Data

The Canadian dollar today rallied against its much weaker US counterpart buoyed by rising crude oil prices and the elevated investor risk appetite. The USD/CAD currency pair fell to new lows despite the latest Canadian jobs data missing consensus estimates by a wider margin than US data.
The USD/CAD currency pair fell from a high of 1.2832 in the late Asian market to a low of 1.2765 in the North American session and was trading near these lows at the time of writing.
The currency pair’s initial decline was fueled by the rising crude oil prices as tracked by the West Texas Intermediate, which hit a high of 57.27 today. The risk-on market sentiment also boosted the commodity-linked loonie as investors favoured riskier assets to the safe-haven dollar. The rally across global equity markets also made the US dollar less attractive to traders chasing daily gains.
The release of the disappointing Canadian labour market survey had a muted impact on the pair. According to Statistics Canada, the country lost 212,800 jobs in January versus the expected 47,500 job losses. The country’s unemployment rate rose to 9.4% versus analysts’ expectations of 8.9%. The upbeat Canadian international merchandise trade balance also supported the loonie.
The release of the slightly better US non-farm payrolls figures could not stop the greenback’s losses. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country added 49,000 jobs missing consensus estimates of 50,000 jobs.
The currency pair’s performance over the upcoming weekend is likely to be affected by crude oil prices and geopolitical events.
The USD/CAD currency pair was trading at 1.2767 at 19:27 GMT after falling from a high of 1.2832. The CAD/JPY currency pair was trading at 82.55, having rallied from a low of 82.24.
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Original from: www.earnforex.com