Loonie Remains Under Pressure

The Canadian dollar weakened to 1.35 against the dollar, as investors digested the latest jobs report and await the Bank of Canada monetary policy meeting on Wednesday.

Data from Statistics Canada showed the economy added 10.1K jobs in November, compared with market expectations of a 5K gain while the jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 5.1%.

Money markets expect the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates by 25 bps next Wednesday, after delivering a 50 bps rate hike in October.

The central bank unexpectedly slowed the pace of interest-rate hikes as the economy showed signs of a sharp slowdown.

The latest data showed that the Canadian economy grew an annualized 2.9% in the third quarter of 2022, beating expectations for a modest 1.5%, but still the weakest reading since Q2 2021.