The Canadian dollar ended the last trading session down against the US dollar and the Japanese yen, but up versus the euro, as Standard & Poor’s downgraded credit ratings of various European countries, including France, but excluding Germany.

S&P cut credit ratings of several countries of the eurozone. The rating of France and Austria was cut from AAA to AA+, leaving Germany the only eurozone country with a stable top grade as the AAA rating Finland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg is threatened by negative outlook. The full impact of the decision is likely to become apparent only next week, but it’s already clear that positive sentiment about Europe was badly hurt.

In the contrast, Canada itself showed signs of economic growth, limiting losses of the loonie (as Canada’s currency is usually nicknamed). Canadian trade balance posted a C$0.5 billion deficit in October and was expected to show the same reading in November. The balance turned to surplus of C$1.1 billion instead.

USD/CAD ended up at 1.0230 from the opening of 1.0189 and CAD/JPY closed at 75.16 down from 75.29 at the last session. EUR/CAD dropped from 1.3056 to close at 1.2964.

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