The Canadian dollar strengthened to a two-week high against the greenback on Friday amid investor optimism on trade talks, while bets for no further Bank of Canada interest rate hikes stayed in place after domestic data showing a slower pace of job creation. At 9:44 a.m. (1444 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading 0.4 per cent higher at 1.3437 to the greenback, or 74.42 U.S. cents. The currency touched its strongest level since Dec. 19 at 1.3423. Canada added 9,300 jobs in December on an increase in part-time hiring, slightly more than markets had expected after a record 94,100 jobs were created in the previous month, Statistics Canada data indicated. “Decent, not great though … we were due for a pullback in hiring after the very strong November data,” said Andrew Kelvin, senior rates strategist at TD Securities. Money markets expect the Bank of Canada, which has hiked five times since July 2017, to leave its benchmark interest rate on hold at 1.75 per cent next week and through the rest of the year. In November, before a sell-off in stocks and oil prices deepened, the market had expected rates to rise to about 2.50 per cent by the […]
