TORONTO: The Canadian dollar saw little price action against its US counterpart on Monday, as the currency held steady near its weakest levels in more than five years following Friday's North American employment data.
The US dollar remained strong after data showed US labor market strength in both wage growth and job creation, offering more signs that the US central bank may be edging closer toward raising interest rates.
In Canada, the jobs data did little to convince market participants the Bank of Canada will be changing its tune on monetary policy any time soon, and the loonie remained under pressure, underperforming nearly all its currency counterparts.
At 9:12 a.m. (1412 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading at C$1.1436 to the US dollar, or 87.44 US cents, little changed from Friday's close of C$1.1432, or 87.47 US cents. On Friday, the currency had touched C$1.1476, or 87.14 US cents, it's weakest since July 2009.
"Everything we're seeing today is just following on from Friday's moves. The (US) dollar has generally a better tone across the board. Not a lot of news to trade off of," said Adam Cole, global head of FX strategy with RBC Capital Markets in London.
Cole said it was a US dollar-dominated market on Monday and the Canadian dollar was being pulled along.
The loonie saw little reaction to economic data that showed Canadian building permits edged higher in October following sharp gains in September, and housing starts climbed in November.
Canadian government bond prices were higher across the maturity curve, with the two-year adding 1 Canadian cent to yield 1.041 percent and the benchmark 10-year up 16 Canadian cents to yield 1.939 percent.
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