Canada
Dollar/Canada encountered choppy trading for most of last week amid mixed data. It then collapsed on Friday amid large demand for Canada/yen.
Canadian housing starts collapsed 21 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 196,200 units from a revised 248,500 units in January. However, new housing costs in Canada rose 0.3 percent in January.
The Purchasing Management index rose to 60.5 in February from 53.8 in January, according to the Ivey Purchasing Managers Index.
The trade surplus unexpectedly widened to C$6.35 billion in January, the largest since December 2005, from C$4.98 billion in December. Exports rose 0.9 percent, while imports dropped 2.9 percent.
Moreover, employers added 14,200 new jobs in February to the 88,900 jobs increase in January and this helped the jobless rate fall to 6.1 percent from the previous month’s 6.2 percent rate. This is a three-decade low and was reached three times since May.
As universally expected, the Bank of Canada kept its main interest rate unchanged at 4.25 percent for a sixth meeting, the highest since August 2001, and 1 percentage point less than the Fed funds’ rate.