Week in FX Americas – Canada Makes US Job Numbers Small Looking

Canada is making it look so easy. The US employment report (+155k) pales in comparison to what Ottawa was able to deliver on Friday. An economy the tenth the size of the US managed to create eight times more jobs than expected in December (+39.8k). Canada was able to drive the unemployment rate down to a new four-year low (+7.1%).

If you superimposed and translated the Canadian gain in US terms, the Canucks managed to find +400k new jobs. It's not the most accurate of measurements, but it could be argued that it's close. This certainly dwarfs the 2012 monthly US average job gain of +153k. The immediate response from the market was certainly disappointing for the dollar. Being so deep into the recovery, US hiring should have been much stronger by now.

Decembers NFP's consensus showing tempers concerns that the Fed will tighten sooner rather than later. That was something that was expressed after this week's release of the FOMC minutes.

USD/CAD – Edges Higher as US Dollar Rebounds from Fiscal Cliff Losses
Dec US Payroll As Expected: Jobless Rate Holds Steady
QE3 to end in 2013 – Reaction and Charts
FOMC Participants Saw QE3 Ending in 2013
US Treasury Secretary Could Leave end of January
US Economy add 155k new jobs.
US 10′s Print Three Month High Yield
Geithner to leave before Debt Ceiling agreement finalized
No “Meaningful Improvement” in US Cliff Deal – Moody's
Congress to look at Sequestration and Debt Ceiling on Thursday
Lesser of 2 evils – Cliff Deal hurts growth but avoid recession

WEEK AHEAD

• EUR Euro-zone Producer Price Index
• CNY Consumer Price Index
• CNY New Yuan Loans
• GBP Bank of England Rate Decision
• GBP BOE Asset Purchase Target
• EUR European Central Bank Rate Decision
GBP NIESR Gross Domestic Product Estimate

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