US Dollar Gains as Markets Rally, Loonie Awaits Volatile Jobs Report

Today's expected range for the Canadian Dollar against the major currencies:

US Dollar        1.3700-1.3800

Euro                 1.4950-1.5050

Sterling            1.7450-1.7550

WTI Oil (opening level) $75.46

The US Dollar index is marginally stronger this morning as further chaos continues to close out the week. Yesterday saw the US Jobless claims report come in much better than expected so all the bets that the US economy was headed for a hard landing were quickly reversed and the stock markets had its best one day gain since November 2022. The US Stock market closed some 680 points higher and the TSX was up over 340 points so over all a great day for the markets and hopefully some calm will return to the market place today.

The Canadian Dollar lost a little ground to the US Dollar yesterday but for the most part the Loonie is hanging and holding onto recent strength. The Loonie will be front and centre today as we get the July employment report, it is expected that the economy created over 20K new jobs after losing 1.4K in June. This report is always highly volatile so the Loonie could also be quite volatile this morning.

Stocks are pointing to a flat opening and hopefully will calm down and give the market some respite, they will now focus on next week's US inflation report so who knows how long before further volatility returns.