By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, January 4 The Canadian dollar was trading at a higher level compared to its US counterpart at 9:07 CST Friday, as strong Canadian employment data lifted its value, analysts said.
Statistics Canada reported 40,000 new jobs were created in December, beating expectations of just 5,000 new jobs. The Canadian unemployment rate declined 0.1 percentage points to 7.1%, the lowest in four years.
At 9:07 CST Friday, the Canadian dollar was at US$1.0143 or US$=C$0.9859, which compares with Thursday’s North American close of US$1.0121 or US$=C$0.9880.
Good US jobs data also provided support for the Canadian currency. There were 155,000 new jobs created in the US in December, in line with expectations. The country’s unemployment rate was steady at 7.8%.
However, declining commodity prices, including crude oil, gold and copper, helped to slow the advances seen in the Canadian dollar.
Canada’s Industrial Product Price Index fell 0.3% in November from October, while the Raw Materials Price Index fell 1.9%, StatsCan reported.
The TSX was down 2.37 points, or 0.02%, at 9:07 CST Friday morning to sit at 12,468.07.
