A strong jobs report and a big option expiry reversing USD/CAD gains.
USD/CAD is trading at 1.2600 after rising as high as 1.2665 before a solid March jobs report.
Economist Avery Shenfeld from CIBC brushed off the poor breakdown in full-time/part-time jobs in the report. "One could quibble about the net loss of 28K full time jobs, but against that was a 46K rebound in paid employment at the expense of self-employed," he wrote. Shenfeld notes that "On balance, the numbers will give a much needed dose of optimism after a deluge of weak data for January-February." He sees the job data "certainly diminishes the odds of a rate cut in the coming week, even if these data are volatile month to month."
In the short-term, a $4.3 billion option runs off at 1.2600 at the top of the hour along with $1.45B at 1.2570. Those are likely to keep the pair pinned but keep an eye on oil as it rebounds to $50.66 from a second test of $50.00.
USDCAD hourly chart
