BLBG: Canada’s Dollar Declines Before Job Reports as Crude Oil Falls
By Chris Fournier
Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s dollar weakened as crude oil, the nation’s largest export, declined and investors speculated government reports due tomorrow will show Canadian and American unemployment rose.
The Canadian currency depreciated 0.5 percent to C$1.0761 per U.S. dollar at 10:29 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.0705 yesterday. It reached C$1.0633 two days ago, the strongest since Oct. 2. One Canadian dollar buys 92.92 U.S. cents.
“Everything hinges on the employment reports,” said Benjamin Reitzes, an economist in Toronto at BMO Capital Markets, a unit of Canada’s fourth-largest bank. “At this point, without oil prices continuing to rise, any further gains in the Canadian dollar would be from a speculative perspective rather than a fundamental perspective.”
Crude oil for September delivery fell 2.1 percent to $70.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Canadian employers cut 15,000 jobs in July, according to the median estimate of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, after an elimination of 7,400 in June. The jobless rate increased to 8.8 percent, from 8.6 percent, according to the median forecast. Statistics Canada is scheduled to release the report tomorrow at 7 a.m. New York time.
The U.S. Labor Department will say tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. that U.S. payrolls shed 328,000 jobs in July, after losing 467,000 in June, according to the median forecast of 82 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The median forecast for the U.S. unemployment rate is for a rise to 9.6 percent in July, from 9.5 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net
