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Jobs, jobs, jobs! It seems that the end of the world has been postponed:

The Canadian dollar strengthened against its U.S. counterpart on Friday, as investors slashed bets on an interest-rate cut this year by the Bank of Canada after domestic data showing a surprise jump in jobs in February.

Employers added 55,900 jobs in February, which was the third month of outsized gains in the last four and exceeded the 20,000 jobs created in the United States for the same month. Analysts had forecast February job numbers to be flat in Canada.

Chances of an interest-rate cut by December, which had climbed this week on a more dovish tone from the Bank of Canada, fell to 20 per cent from nearly 40 per cent before the data, the overnight index swaps market indicated.
…
At 9:31 a.m. (1431 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading 0.3 per cent higher at 1.3419 to the greenback, or 74.52 U.S. cents. The currency, which touched on Thursday its weakest in more than two months at 1.3467, traded in a range of 1.3391 to 1.3466.

Gains for the loonie came despite a drop in the price of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, after the European Central Bank warned of continued weakness and fresh data showed Chinese imports and exports slumped last month.

U.S. crude prices were down 3 per cent at $54.94 a barrel.

Separate data, from the national housing agency, showed that Canadian housing starts tumbled about 16 per cent in February as groundbreaking on urban single-detached and multiple unit homes declined.

… while in the US …:

■ 20,000 jobs were added last month. Analysts had expected a gain of about 175,000, according to MarketWatch. It was the 101st straight month of job gains, but the weakest report since September 2017.

■ The unemployment rate was 3.8 percent. It was 4 percent in January.

■ Average hourly earnings rose by 0.4 percent after growing by 0.1 percent in January. The year-over-year gain is now 3.4 percent.
…
As has been the case throughout the recovery, job opportunities can vary widely by region. Hard-pressed rural areas have experienced the slowest growth in employment, yet residents are often unable or unwilling to abandon their homes and move to other areas.

While the job growth reflected in the monthly report is spread relatively evenly across large urban areas, the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project found that “rural counties — the majority of which were already struggling — seem to be increasingly left behind with employment barely growing over the last five years.”

This entry was posted on Friday, March 8th, 2019 at 6:59 pm and is filed under Market Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.