USD/CAD: best week for the CAD since August

USD/CAD dropped today for the second day in a row. The pair bottomed after economic data at 1.3245, the lowest level since October 21. Then it bounced to the upside and it was about to end the week hovering slightly below 1.3300. 

US and Canadian employment report 

In the US, Non-farm Payrolls increased by 178K in November, slightly above the 175K expected. The unemployment rate dropped from 4.9% to 4.6%, the lowest since 2007, from October’s 4.9%. On the negative side, average hourly earnings dropped 0.1%.

In Canada, job growth was 10K against expectations of a decline in employment of 20K. “The headline job growth of 10.7k jobs overstates the case.  Canada lost 8.7k full-time positions after losing 23.1k in October.   Part-time positions grew by 19.4k.  Unlike what we saw in the US, the full decline in Canada's unemployment rate to 6.8% from 7.0% can be fully explained by the drop in the participation rate (65.6% vs. 65.8%)”, explained analysts from Brown Brothers Harriman. 

From the level it had before the numbers, USD/CAD was modestly lower. The pair remained consolidating weekly losses. 

CAD, the best of the week 

The Canadian dollar (CAD), the South African Rand (ZAR), the Colombia Peso (COP) and the Russian ruble (RUB) were the best performers during the week. The boost to the mentioned currencies came from the rally in crude oil prices after the OPEC deal. 

The WTI barrel rose almost 15% during the week while USD/CAD dropped 1.80%, having the worst week since August.