TORONTO: The Canadian dollar was little changed against the greenback on Thursday as the market paused in anticipation of Friday's release of US and Canadian employment reports for November.
The currency has had big swings of between half a cent and more than a cent over the past five sessions, mostly in reaction to a plunge oil prices after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided not to pull back on production despite a glut in the market. Canada is a major oil exporter.
A less dovish statement from the Bank of Canada on Wednesday helped prop up the Canadian dollar, but with little key economic data until Friday's employment reports, market participants were holding off making big bets.
"It does not appear that we're getting much in the way of independent direction at this point from energy," said Mark Chandler, head of Canadian fixed income and currency strategy at Royal Bank of Canada.
"I would argue ... the better data that we've seen, firmer bank stance, that may have offset some of the negative in energy and it's hard to discern now the balance between the two."
At 9:02 a.m. (1402 GMT), the Canadian dollar was at C$1.1362 to the greenback, or 88.01 US cents, steady from Wednesday's close at C$1.1366, or 87.98 US cents.
"We're trapped at around these levels mostly as people await the job reports," said Chandler, noting that the US labor report may have a bigger influence on the loonie on Friday.
In Canada, economists and analysts expect 5,000 new jobs to have been added in November and for the unemployment rate to have crept up to 6.6 percent from 6.5 percent.
Chandler said a slight pullback was expected after the extraordinarily robust job gains of the previous two months.
Canadian government bond prices were mixed across the maturity curve, with the two-year up half a Canadian cent to yield 1.021 percent and the benchmark 10-year down 5 Canadian cents to yield 1.945 percent.
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