The growth in U.S. job creation almost doubled economists’ expectations

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

US Dollar        1.3650-1.3750

Euro                1.4425-1.4525

Sterling           1.6700-1.6800

WTI Oil (opening level) $82.29

The US Dollar index was marginally weaker this morning as the market was awaiting word on the US September Jobs report. It was expected that the US economy created another 170K jobs last month, the unemployment rate was expected to fall to 3.7% from 3.8%. In fact, the unemployment rate is 3.8 percent, unchanged from August, while American economy added a stunning 336,000 jobs in September. Yesterday saw the Private ADP employment report come in a little softer than expected that would allow the Fed to hold on interest rates next month.

The Canadian Dollar opens the day stronger against the US Dollar near the 1.3720 (0.7289) level but weaker against the other currencies. For the moment the Loonie is holding its own in the face of an overall drop in commodity prices including oil which has had its biggest weekly drop since March.

Up today we also got the Canadian Employment report for September and the economy is expected to have created 20K new jobs last month after creating almost 40K last month, the unemployment rate is expected to fall to 5.5%. The report showed that employment rose by 64,000 (+0.3%) in September.