By Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, August 8 – The Canadian dollar was lower on Friday amid a huge miss in expectation for job creation last month, analysts say.
At 9:00 CDT Friday morning, the loonie was down 0.33 of a cent to US$0.9124 or US$1 = C$1.0922 as Statistics Canada reported that the economy created a meager 200 jobs during the month of July. Economists had generally expected that 20,000 jobs would be created.
Canada’s unemployment rate dipped 0.1 of a point to 7.0 per cent.
Traders were increasingly risk averse at the end of the week amid a number of geopolitical issues.
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A primary focus for traders was the Russia/Ukraine standoff, which raised concerns over the odds of Russia invading eastern Ukraine in order to prop up Ukrainian rebels. There is also concern on how sanctions and countersanctions could derail a still-fragile economy in Europe.
There are also some fears over the potential of Russia expanding its food ban to include the car, shipping and aerospace sectors.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama authorized airstrikes in northern Iraq, warning they would be launched to defend American troops and civilians under siege from Islamic State militants.
The Toronto Stock Exchange was up 2.34 points to 15,121.11 at 9:00 CDT Friday morning.
