Investing.com - The U.S. dollar pushed higher against the Canadian dollar on Monday, but gains were capped as Friday’s U.S. payrolls numbers continued to weigh, while a stronger-than-expected domestic jobs report lent modest support to the Canadian dollar.
USD/CAD touched session highs of 1.1010 and was last up 0.16% to 1.0997, up from Friday’s five-week lows 1.0955.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.0955 and resistance at 1.1025.
The greenback fell against the Canadian dollar on Friday after the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 192,000 jobs in March, below expectations for jobs growth of 200,000.
The U.S. unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.7%, compared to expectations for a downtick to 6.6%.
The data undershot some expectations for a more robust reading but indicated that the Federal Reserve is likely to stick to its current timetable for unwinding its asset purchase program.
The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is also known, remained supported after official data on Friday showed that that the economy added 42,900 jobs last month, well above the forecast jobs growth of 21,500. The increase came after the economy unexpectedly shed 7,000 jobs in February.
Canada’s unemployment rate declined to 6.9%, the first drop this year, from 7.0% in February.
Elsewhere, the loonie was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD advancing 0.34% to 1.5099.
The single currency found support as comments by European Central Bank officials eased concerns over the prospect of quantitative easing.
Earlier Monday, ECB policymaker Yves Mersch said that while the central bank was working on plans for large-scale asset purchases to drive up inflation, this program is not required yet.
Separately, Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann said that monetary policy cannot solve the financial crisis, and urged euro zone political leaders to keep reforming their economies.