USD index weakens as markets await the US Employment report

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

US Dollar             1.2675-1.2775

Euro                     1.4350-1.4450

Sterling                1.7200-1.7300

The US Dollar index is marginally weaker this morning as the market gets set for the first US Employment report of the new year. The market is expecting that over 400K new jobs will have been created last month and the unemployment rate will fall to 4.1%. If the number is better than expected look for a jump in the US Dollar as that will put more pressure on the Fed to increase rates possibly as early as March.

The big overnight news was Euro Zone inflation that came in at 5%, the Euro could not garner any strength from the news as the market just does not see the ECB increasing interest rates anytime soon as they continue to fight the virus in Europe.

The Canadian Dollar opens the day slightly stronger as USD.CAD fell to trade at 1.2720 (0.7862) as I write. Also, this morning we get the Canadian jobs report for December and the market is expecting the Canadian economy to have created over 25K new jobs last month. Unless the number is wildly different than expectation, I don't think this number will affect the value of the Loonie as much as a lot of Canada is back in lockdown for January and the numbers are sure to fall again, the US number will dictate where the Loonie goes today.