Investing.com - The U.S. dollar rallied over 1% to a one-week high against its Canadian counterpart on Friday, after data showed that the U.S. economy added far more jobs than expected last month, while a downbeat Canadian employment report weighed on the local currency.
USD/CAD hit 1.3179 during early U.S. trade, the pair’s highest since July 29; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3174, rallying 1.17%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2992, Thursday’s low and resistance at 1.3252, the high of July 27.
The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 255,000 jobs last month. Economists had forecast that payrolls would increase by 180,000.
June’s number was revised up to 292,000 jobs compared with the previous estimate of 287,000.
The report also showed that the U.S. unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9% in July.
Average hourly earnings were up 2.6% compared with a year earlier.
At the same time, Statitics Canada reported that the number of employed people dropped by 31,200 in July, compared to expectations for a 10,000 rise and after a 700 fall the previous month.
Canada’s unemployment rate ticked up to 6.9% last month from 6.8% in June.
A separate report showed that Canada’s trade deficit widened to C$3.63 billion in June from C$3.50 billion in May, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of C$3.28 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to C$2.82 billion in June.
The loonie was also lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD climbing 0.56% to 1.4574.