New York (Reuters) -The dollar dipped on Thursday, hitting its lowest point in three days, as global market risk appetite improved and traders looked forward to the April jobs report due on Friday for direction.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell below 500,000 last week for the first since the COVID-19 pandemic started more than a year ago, data showed, signalling the labor market recovery entered a new phase amid a booming economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high, with financials and industrials rising following the jobless claims report.
While the U.S. economy has been gaining steam on the back of massive government stimulus and an improving health situation, Federal Reserve speakers on Wednesday downplayed the risks of higher inflation.
The U.S. dollar, which is regarded as a safehaven asset, declined against a basket of peer currencies and was last down 0.34% at 90.948.
“The outlook for the dollar by many right now that it’s going to be in the house of pain for quite some time,” because for the most part, the markets are convinced that the Fed has Treasury yields under control, said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at FX broker OANDA in New York.
Investors were looking forward to the closely watched non-farm payrolls report on Friday, with estimates of between 700,000 and more than 2 million jobs having been created in April.
If the number is north of 1.5 million, it could lead to a spike in Treasury yields that would provide some temporary support for the dollar, Moya said.
Elsewhere, the Bank of England said it would slow the pace of its bond-buying as it sharply increased its forecast for Britain’s economic growth this year after its coronavirus slump, but it stressed it was not tightening monetary policy.
“They said they are going to reduce the weekly pace of purchases, but that’s not a signal and so sterling has kind of gone up and down and done nothing at the end of the day,” said Erik Bregar, director and head of FX strategy at the Exchange Bank of Canada.
The pound was last down 0.15% against the weaker dollar at $1.3890 .
The euro was up 0.44% versus the dollar at $1.2058, and up 0.54% against the pound, at 0.8678 pence per euro.
Investors were also paying attention to elections in Scotland that could herald a political showdown over a new independence referendum.
The Canadian dollar hit a three-and-a-half year high against the greenback, helped by oil price gains and the Bank of Canada’s recent shift to more hawkish guidance.
“The Canadian dollar continues to have everything going for it fundamentally, technically, and if you look at intermarket correlations, so it’s been a tough trend to step in the way of,” said Bregar.
In cryptocurrencies, ether, the world’s second largest crypto currency after Bitcoin, hit a record high of $3,610.04.
Bitcoin declined 1.03% to $56,919.50.
The meme-based virtual currency Dogecoin soared on Wednesday to an all-time high, extending its 2021 rally to become the fourth-biggest digital coin.
(Reporting by John McCrank in New York; editing by Alistair Bell and Bernadette Baum)
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets also climbed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says wholesale sales, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, rose 0.4 per cent to $82.7 billion in July.
The increase came as sales in the miscellaneous subsector gained three per cent to reach $10.5 billion in July, helped by strength in the agriculture supplies industry group, which rose 9.2 per cent.
The food, beverage and tobacco subsector added 1.7 per cent to total $15 billion in July.
The personal and household goods subsector fell 2.5 per cent to $12.1 billion.
In volume terms, overall wholesale sales rose 0.5 per cent in July.
Statistics Canada started including oilseed and grain as well as the petroleum and petroleum products subsector as part of wholesale trade last year, but is excluding the data from monthly analysis until there is enough historical data.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 150 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in the base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 172.18 points at 23,383.35.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 34.99 points at 40,826.72. The S&P 500 index was up 10.56 points at 5,564.69, while the Nasdaq composite was up 74.84 points at 17,470.37.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.55 cents US compared with 73.59 cents US on Wednesday.
The October crude oil contract was up $2.00 at US$69.31 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up five cents at US$2.32 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$40.00 at US$2,582.40 an ounce and the December copper contract was up six cents at US$4.20 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
