By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, June 5 – The Canadian dollar was firmer against the US dollar at midday Friday, finding support from positive Canadian employment data, analysts said.
According to Statistics Canada, Canada’s economy created 59,000 new jobs in May, due to gains in private sector employment. Pre-report expectations called for jobs to increase by 10,000. The unemployment rate held steady at 6.8 per cent.
At 11:30 CDT Friday, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.8009 or US$1=C$1.2486, which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$0.7997 or US$1=C$1.2504.
Some of the advances were also linked to spillover support from the gains seen in crude oil values, as it is one of Canada’s biggest exports.
However, positive US employment data was limiting the Canadian dollar’s upside, as it reinforced ideas that the US Federal Reserve will increase interest rates later this year.
There were 280,000 new jobs created in the US last month, beating pre-report guesses of 226,000 new jobs, data shows.
The Toronto Stock Exchange was down 15.07 points, or 0.10%, at 11:30 CDT Friday, to sit at 15,004.32.
