Canada’s dollar appreciated to the strongest level in more than three years against its U.S. counterpart as crude oil, the nation’s largest export, rose above $111 a barrel for the first time since 2008.
Canada’s currency briefly pared gains after a government report showed the economy unexpectedly lost jobs for the first time in six months in March. Oil rose as a fire burned at Libya’s Sarir field, bolstering concern that unrest in the region will further reduce supply. The U.S. dollar weakened against 14 of its 16 most-traded peers. Global stocks gained.
“Equity markets are up, the U.S. dollar is weak and commodities are booming, which is a formula for Canadian dollar strength,” said Steven Englander, head of Group of 10 currency strategy at Citigroup Inc. in New York. “Canada’s data numbers are the second story.”
The Canadian currency, nicknamed the loonie for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, strengthened 0.3 percent to 95.50 cents per U.S. dollar at 9:39 a.m. in Toronto, from 95.82 cents yesterday. It touched 95.27 cents, the strongest since 2007.
Crude oil for May delivery rose 0.8 percent to $111.20 a barrel in New York. It touched $111.90 a barrel, the highest since September 2008. Gold for June delivery surged to a record $1476.80 an ounce.
The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of raw materials gained for the seventh consecutive day, increasing 0.5 percent.
Raw materials, including oil and gold, account for about half of Canada’s export revenue.
The MSCI World Index increased 0.6 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.3 percent.
The Dollar Index, which IntercontinentalExchange Inc. uses to track the greenback against six of its major trading partners including the Canadian dollar, fell to 75.061, the lowest level since December 2009.
Employment fell by 1,500 last month, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. The number was lower than forecast by all 25 economists in a Bloomberg News survey that had a median estimate of a 28,000 gain. The unemployment rate declined to 7.7 percent from 7.8 percent as predicted, as the labor force shrank by 14,900 people.
Canada’s dollar remained higher after the report as investors focused on the 90,600 gain in full-time work, the biggest since September 2009. The increase almost matched the 92,100 drop in part-time employment, which was the biggest in records dating to 1976.
“There’s a broader trend of a weak U.S. dollar so the market was quick to dismiss Canadian employment,” said Camilla Sutton, a Bank of Nova Scotia currency strategist in Toronto.
Canadian government bonds fell, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year note up four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 3.47 percent. The price of the 3.5 percent security maturing in June 2020 dropped 27 cents to C$100.24.
Source: Bloomberg By
No comments:
Post a Comment