TORONTO: The Canadian dollar was little changed against its US counterpart on Monday in quiet holiday trade as investors continued to digest signs of a solid US recovery and what that may mean for US monetary policy.
Surprisingly strong US jobs data on Friday brought forward expectations for when the Federal Reserve could start tapering its stimulus, lifting Treasury bond yields and the dollar without curtailing demand for shares on Wall Street or in other major markets.
Both Canadian and US markets had limited activity as many participants were out for Canada's Remembrance Day or US Veterans Day holiday.
"The market participants that are working today are still digesting the big events of the end of last week. We had a bit better Canadian employment report on Friday but that was completely overshadowed by the much better than expected U.S, report," said Greg Moore, FX Strategist at TD Securities.
"Markets are still digesting what that implies for QE tapering in particular. In anything, the bias should be towards a little bit more US dollar strength."
The Canadian dollar was trading at C$1.0478 versus the greenback, or 95.43 US cents at 9:46 a.m. (1446 GMT), little changed from Friday's North American session close at C$1.0478, or 95.44 US cents.
Moore said the currency has likely already tested its high today near C$1.0467 and should trade in a range between C$1.0450 and C$1.0510 to the US dollar.
"Looking at the rest of the week, there are very few developments that could change the overall trend right now, and so we are biased toward the upside for dollar-CAD," he said.
The expectations for US growth helped lift European shares by 0.1 percent and off one-week lows during a subdued morning session.
Earlier the recovery hopes had boosted Japan's Nikkei by a hefty 1.3 percent, lifting it from one-month lows. MSCI's global barometer of world shares added 0.2 percent though it was still down 1.7 percent from the near six-year highs touched at the end of October when it seemed the Fed might not taper until well into next year.
Asian shares, however, reflected the concern in emerging markets that an earlier cutback in Fed stimulus and higher bond rates would attract capital back toward the United States.
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