Canadian Dollar Falls with Employment

The Canadian dollar today for the second day against its US counterpart and the Japanese yen, heading to parity with the greenback, after the report showed that employment in Canada unexpectedly dropped and unemployment rate rose last month. The currency managed to gain versus the euro.

Statistics Canada reported today that the number of employed persons decreased by 5,500 in August, following the increase by 7,100 in July. Forecasts much were more optimistic, promising a growth by 24,200. Unemployment rate increase by 0.1 percent to 7.3 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slumped as much as 3 percent, while Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 2.2 percent.

Mood on markets was depressed as talks abound that Greece may leave the Eurozone. The negative sentiment pushed the loonie (the nickname of the Canadian currency) down against the US dollar and the yen, but allowed to outperform the euro.

USD/CAD jumped from 0.9893 to 0.9967 as of 20:41 GMT today. CAD/JPY fell from 78.28 to 77.75 after touching the intraday low of 77.31. EUR/CAD fell from 1.3732 to 1.3606.

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