The Canadian dollar jumped today, closing near parity against its US peer, but fell versus the euro. The reason for the good performance was optimism caused by the better-than-expected US non-farm payrolls.

The expected employment growth was rather big, but the actual increase was even bigger. Crude oil rallied after the report. Crude is the major export of Canada and most of it goes to the United States.

At the start of the trading session, the Forex market was depressed as disappointment, caused by the inactivity of the European Central Bank, carried over from the previous session. But the good news from the USA wiped out pessimism from the market. The rally led to the fourth straight weekly gain of the loonie against the greenback.

USD/CAD closed at 1.0011, falling from the opening level of 1.0072, while it dropped below parity intraday to 0.9978. CAD/JPY advanced from 77.66 to close at 78.34 and it daily maximum was at 78.85. EUR/CAD was up from 1.2266 to 1.2400.

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