Euro is taking the currency market's stage today

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

US Dollar             1.2700-1.2800

Euro                     1.4550-1.4650

Sterling                1.7200-1.7300

The US Dollar index is weaker this morning as the US Dollar gave up a lot of ground after ECB President LaGarde yesterday changed course on interest rates saying that rampant inflation in the region will lead to interest rate hikes later this year. EUR.USD jumped from a low of 1.1280 to trade as high as 1.1475 this morning, EUR.CAD had a similar type of a shift, moving from a low of 1.4320 to trade this morning at 1.4600. This is the first time the ECB has acknowledged that the area is facing higher interest rates this year.

Stocks continue to be very volatile as on Wednesday the saw Facebook show the biggest single day drop for any company in history and yesterday saw Amazon record the largest single day gain by any company as the online retailer added some $200 Billion to its market capitalization after reporting strong results. This kind of volatility will continue in the short term and continue to push the US Dollar around.

The Canadian Dollar was not able to take any advantage of an oil price that hit $90 this morning, USD.CAD opens the day back above the 1.2700 (0.7874) level this morning and looks like it is in for another rocky ride.

More volatility on tap for today with the US and Canadian January jobs report, the US report will be particularly hard to gauge as the consensus is that it should come in with a small gain but Omicron and labour department correction of the previous numbers may adjust that downwards. The Canadian report is showing a drop close to 120K which is not surprising as a lot of the country went into lockdown during January.