TORONTO: The Canadian dollar weakened slightly against its US counterpart on Wednesday but hung on to most of the previous day's gains as oil prices rose and the greenback retreated from a 14-year high.
The US dollar weakened against a basket of major currencies, giving back some of the gains chalked up since US President-elect Donald Trump's victory last month.
Oil, one of Canada's major exports, rose on expectations for a decline in US crude inventories.
US crude was up 0.32 percent at $53.47 a barrel.
Canada's non-farm payroll jobs declined by 33,600 in October after increasing 63,700 in the prior month, data from Statistics Canada showed.
At 9:22 a.m. EST (1422 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading at C$1.3372 to the greenback, or 74.78 US cents, slightly weaker than Tuesday's close of C$1.3367, or 74.81 US cents.
The currency was confined to a narrow range of C$1.3390 to C$1.3357 in pre-Christmas trading.
In intraday trading on Tuesday, the loonie touched its weakest level since Oct. 1 at C$1.3434, pressured by the recent drop in Canadian yields below US Treasuries.
Canadian government bond prices were mixed across the yield curve, with the two-year down 1 Canadian cent to yield 0.829 percent and the benchmark 10-year rising 1 Canadian cent to yield 1.805 percent.
Reports on Canadian inflation for November and retail sales for October are due on Thursday, while gross domestic product data for October is scheduled for on Friday.
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