USD Strengthens Against CAD Ahead of Jobs Data

The US Dollar (USD) remains strong against the Canadian Dollar (CAD), trading around 1.4020 on Friday, up a modest 0.06% from the previous day.

This is despite higher oil prices providing fundamental support to the CAD, as Canada typically benefits from stronger export revenues when crude prices rise.

Markets are awaiting the release of US and Canadian July employment reports, which could reshape expectations for the Federal Reserve's policy path and trigger increased volatility in the USD.

Economists expect the US economy to have added 80K jobs after 57K in June, while the Unemployment Rate is forecast to remain unchanged at 4.2%.

On the Canadian side, a 20K print would see the unemployment rate fall 0.1pp to 6.4%, according to TD Securities, which also expects employment to rise by another 20k in July.