The US dollar lost 0.2% this morning against its Canadian counterpart as November jobs numbers south of the border missed badly. Non-farm payrolls increased by only 245k whereas economists had been expecting an increase of 469k jobs. In October, the number of jobs added was 638k jobs. In Canada, the jobs recovery has slowed but was still ahead of expectations. The Canadian economy added 62k jobs in November, ahead of the consensus expectation of 20k, but behind October’s 84k jobs. On both side of the border, the jobs recovery has clearly slowed, as expected. But the slowdown was much more sever in the US in November. The severity of the slowdown in jobs recovery likely has to do with the November re-closings due to the second wave of the coronavirus. The poor performance in the US may reflect at least partially the failure to reach a stimulus deal in that country. Today’s disappointing numbers will make a stimulus deal even more likely in the near future. The US dollar reacted to the news by quickly giving up some modest ground against most major currencies and currently stands at multi year lows against the Loonie as well as several other major currencies.
