Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was steady against the Canadian dollar on Monday, hovering close to five year highs as Friday’s strong U.S. employment report continued to underpin demand for the greenback.
USD/CAD was at 1.1436, not far from Friday’s peaks of 1.1475, the highest since July 2009.
The greenback remained broadly stronger after data on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added 321,000 jobs in November, far more than the 225,000 forecast by economists and the largest monthly increase in almost three years.
September’s figure was revised up to 243,000 from a previously reported 214,000 and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at a six-year low of 5.8%.
The unusually strong data saw investors bring forward expectations for the first hike in U.S. interest rates to mid-2015 from September 2015 before the report.
In Canada, data on Friday showed that the economy unexpectedly shed 10,700 jobs last month, following two months of strong jobs growth, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.6% from 6.5% in October.
The Canadian dollar showed little reaction after data on Monday showed that the number of new building permits issued in Canada rose just 0.7% in October, trailing forecasts for a gain of 2.1%.
Another report showed that Canadian housing starts rose to 195,600 units in November from October’s total of 183,700 units.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, hit a peak of 89.57, the strongest level since March 2009 and was last at 89.34.