Investing.com - The U.S. dollar slid lower against its Canadian counterpart on Friday, as the release of tepid U.S. employment data weighed on demand for the greenback, although a rather negative Canadian jobs report limited the local currenc'ys gains.
USD/CAD hit 1.2145 during early U.S. trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2070, down 0.44%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.1937, the low of May 6 and resistance at 1.2204, the high of May 1.
The Department of Labor said that the U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs last month, below expectations for an increase of 224,000. The number of jobs added in March was revised to 85,000 from a previously estimated 126,000.
The report also showed that the U.S. unemployment rate ticked down to 5.4% in April from 5.5% the previous month, in line with expectations.
The data fuelled fresh concerns over the strength of the U.S. job market and added to reasons for investors to push back expectations on the timing of an initial rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
At the same time, Statistics Canada reported that the number of employed people declined by 19,700 in April, compared to expectations for a 5,000 fall, after an increase of 28,700 the previous month.
The report also showed that Canada's unemployment rate held steady at 6.8% last month, confounding expectations for an uptick to 6.9%.
The loonie was higher against the euro, with EUR/CAD declining 0.46% to 1.3595.