CAD: WATCH FOR MORE JOBS WEAKNESS – ING

The Bank of Canada delivered a widely expected 25bp rate cut on Wednesday. The BoC event did not move markets significantly, and the USD/CAD dive shortly after the announcement was instead mostly due to soft US JOLT figures, ING’s FX strategist Francesco Pesole notes.

NFP can have a larger impact on USD/CAD than Canadian payrolls

“Today, Canada releases jobs figures at the same time as the US. The consensus for headline Canadian payrolls is 25k, in line with the last few months. The fact that consensus has not adjusted lower following two negative prints tells us it is not a really reliable benchmark for expectations.”

“Incidentally, looking at the unemployment figure is likely more informative at this stage. We expect, in line with consensus, an increase from 6.4% to 6.5%. Remember, this was 5.7% in January, and another tick higher would endorse market pricing for more back-to-back Bank of Canada cuts.”

“The US payrolls can have a larger impact on USD/CAD than Canadian payrolls. However, we remain of the view that the pairs look increasingly cheap as they approach the 1.345 mark. Ultimately, the Canadian dollar should underperform most other high-beta peers if soft US macro news comes through.”