TORONTO: The Canadian dollar gave up some of last week's gains against US dollar on Monday as the greenback strengthened broadly, while easing prices for crude, a major Canadian export, kept the loonie under pressure.
The market also continued to feel the impact of Friday's US employment data, which showed a rebound in job growth in April and a lower unemployment rate.
"The drivers today: it's really US dollar strength, which was the default bid for nonfarm number on Friday," said Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank Financial, who added that worries about a Greek exit from the euro zone were also supporting the greenback.
Concern over Greece's ability to repay a 750 million euro loan to the International Monetary Fund and risks it could default dominated markets on Monday.
Also, the Chinese central bank cut interest rates for the third time in six months over the weekend in an effort to bolster an economy that was sputtering toward its worst year in a quarter century.
"The overall attraction to the (US) dollar right now is coming on the back of the uncertainties in China," Spitz said.
"Canada has been effectively middle of the road. It's attracting some interest as a North American currency ... but there's no data this week in Canada that's going to be influential."
The Canadian dollar, which was stronger against nearly all of its other currency counterparts, ended at C$1.2110 to the greenback, or 82.58 US cents, marginally weaker than the Bank of Canada's official close of C$1.2090, or 82.71 US cents, on Friday.
The currency traded between C$1.2065 and C$1.2144 on Monday.
US crude prices were off 0.25 percent at $59.24, while Brent crude lost 0.81 percent to $64.86, weighed down by signs that the commodity's recent rally was fueling a rejuvenation of already bloated US shale supplies.
Canadian government bond prices were mixed across the maturity curve with longer-term bonds lower. The two-year price was down 8.5 Canadian cents to yield 0.706 percent and the benchmark 10-year sank C$1.17 to match last week's yield of 1.822 percent, the highest level this year.
The Canada-US two-year bond spread was 8.6 basis points, while the 10-year spread was -46.3 basis points.
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