The Canadian job market gained a shopping 69,200 jobs, more than 3 times the early expectations for 18,900. This sends USD/CAD towards 0.9840, the lowest level in years.
Employment Change, the Canadian equivalent of Non-Farm Payrolls, saw an outstanding gain of almost 70K, the strongest gain in 9 months, when over 100,00 jobs were gained. Also last month’s figure was revised to the upside – 30,000 instead of 22,000.
A small disappointment came from the unemployment rate which rose to 7.8%. It was predicted to remain unchanged at 7.6%. This might be a result that people are returning to the job market.
USD/CAD made an initial drop to 0.9841, just 4 pips away from the low of 0.9837 reached on January 18th – the lowest level since March 2008. It then retreated but remained lower than beforehand.
Support is found at 0.98 and 0.97, low levels from 2008. Resistance is found at 0.9930, followed by 0.9977. See more levels in the Canadian dollar forecast.
The Canadian dollar enjoys the rising oil prices, pushed also by the crisis in Egypt. Today is a “day of departure” – protesters want president Mubarak to leave today. Also US president Obama wants Mubarak to leave now, and is working with the Egyptian army to make it happen.
The markets are tense towards the US Non-Farm Payrolls. They are expected to show a gain of around 150K, after disappointing in previous months.
See the NFP Preview for more on the so-called “king of forex”.
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