Loonie Trades Parity on Weak US jobs data

The Canadian dollar continues to stumble outright this Monday morning, tracking moves in overseas markets that reacted to much weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data on Friday that raised concerns about the strength of the world's largest economy.

Friday's data showed U.S. payrolls grew by 120,000 in March, far below the expected gain of 203,000 jobs, keeping the door open for the U.S. Federal Reserve to provide more monetary support to the fragile economy.

A lack of major economic data in Canada and the United States on Monday will keep investors focused on that U.S. employment report, which came in on an equity market holiday. Markets were closed for the Good Friday holiday, and some Asian markets, including Australia and Hong Kong, and European markets remain shuttered.

“We're picking up from the holiday-long weekend, the slightly weaker than anticipated non-farm payroll numbers on Friday sent the market into a bit of a risk-off mode,” said Matt Perrier, a director of foreign exchange sales at BMO Capital Markets.

Reuters