TORONTO: The Canadian dollar strengthened on Monday against a broadly weaker US dollar, as the greenback was hit by data Friday that showed US jobs growth was much weaker than expected in March, suggesting the Federal Reserve will likely hold off hiking interest rates until later in the year.
At 9:10 a.m. EDT (1310 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading at C$1.2446 to the greenback, or 80.35 US cents, stronger than Thursday's Bank of Canada's official close of C$1.2564, or 79.59 US cents.
Trading was extremely thin on Good Friday, with many markets in Canada, US and Europe closed for the extended Easter weekend. The Canadian dollar finished at C$1.2496, or 80.03 US cents on Friday, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.
The currency's strongest level of the session was C$1.2438. Its weakest was C$1.2496.
US employers added the fewest jobs in more than a year, with nonfarm payrolls rising 126,000 in March, less than half of February's pace and the smallest gain since December 2013.
Ivey PMI data for March is due at 10:00 a.m. EDT
The Canadian dollar, which was outperforming most of its key currency counterparts, is expected to trade between C$1.2430 and C$1.2500 against the US dollar on Monday, according to RBC Capital Markets.
Canadian government bond prices were mixed across the maturity curve, with the longer term securities higher. The two-year price was up 4 Canadian cents to yield 0.471 percent and the benchmark 10-year rose 32 Canadian cents to yield 1.282 percent.
The Canada-US 2-year bond spread is -2.1, while the 10-year spread is -57.5.
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