Week in FX Americas – Canada Makes It A One-Two Combo Punch

The loonie has stabilized somewhat outright, and for a brief period traded back in mildly positive territory after North America released it’s job numbers on Friday. Canada made it a one-two punch, keeping pace with its largest trading partner the US south of the border by creating its own +21.6k new jobs. A good number, relatively on par with NFP, but perhaps not as healthy as the Canadian headline would suggest. Their unemployment rate remained unchanged at +6.9%.

The gains in employment were again driven by part-time (+20k) and the self-employed sector (+19.1k). This tends to be a dangerous combination, but was partially offset on the positive side by large increases in private employment (+31.4k) and manufacturing (+24.9k). The public sector and manufacturing happened to shed -73k between them. Overall, the market should feel that it’s a healthy Canadian report, continuing the positive momentum trend witnessed over the past several months. Even with the better than expected gain (21.6k vs. 12k) the pace of hiring in Canada has slowed compared to last year. On a monthly basis, Canada is reporting a 50% reduction in the actual headline for 2013 with a +13.4k net new job print. On a year-over-year basis, employment rose +1% in November, or by +179k jobs. The participation rate did not change month-to-month (+66.4% near its 10-year low) and continues to fail to keep pace with population growth. The report will do little to sway the recent dovish BoC policy expectations.

• US Treasury Secretary Calls for Tighter Global Banking Oversight
• US Consumer Spending Rises With No Inflation Change
• US Positive Data Drives Mortgages Rates Up
• November NFP Increases by 203,000 Jobs Unemployment Rate 7 Percent
• A Different View on U.S. GDP
• US Wants World Banks To Adopt Strong Regulatory Standards
• US GDP Rises 3.6 Percent in Q3
• U.S. Stocks Starting to Struggle
• CAD at 3 Years Low On Rate Cut Speculation
• Pimco’s Bill Gross Says Fed To Keep Rates Low Until 2016
• Fed Taper Fears Drive Gold To 5 Month Low
• Federal Reserve Preparing New Repo Tool
• US Vice President Asks Japan And China to Lower Tensions
• U.S. Construction Spending Increases Strongly

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