TORONTO: The Canadian dollar firmed against its US counterpart on Tuesday, although it pared some gains after crude oil prices turned lower and US third-quarter economic growth was downgraded less than anticipated.
Oil prices were unable to sustain a bounce after falling to 11-year lows in the previous session.
US crude prices were down 0.25 percent to $35.72 a barrel, while Brent crude lost 0.63 percent to $36.12.
US gross domestic product grew at a 2 percent annual pace in the third quarter, slightly slower than the 2.1 percent previously reported, but better than the 1.9 percent pace economists had expected.
At 9:17 a.m. EST (1417 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading at C$1.3943 to the greenback, or 71.72 US cents, stronger than Monday's close of C$1.3965, or 71.61 US cents.
The currency's strongest level of the session was C$1.3917, while its weakest was C$1.3965. It touched a more than 11-year low of C$1.4003 on Friday.
Canadian average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees rose 0.5 percent in October from the previous month, data from Statistics Canada showed, and 1.9 percent from a year earlier. The number of non-farm payroll jobs rose 23,900 following an increase of 51,700 in September.
Canadian government bond prices were lower across the maturity curve, with the two-year price down 3.5 Canadian cents to yield 0.507 percent and the benchmark 10-year falling 22 Canadian cents to yield 1.405 percent.
The Canada-US two-year bond spread was 0.7 of a basis point narrower at -45.8 basis points, while the 10-year spread was 1 basis point narrower at -80.4 basis points, trimming recent outperformance for Canadian government bonds.
Canadian GDP data for October is awaited on Wednesday. The median estimate in a Reuters poll is for a 0.2 percent gain after falling 0.5 percent in September.
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