Investing.com - The U.S. dollar pared losses against its Canadian counterpart on Monday, although Friday’s downbeat U.S. employment data continued to weigh on the greenback, while climbing oil prices lent support the commodity-related Canadian dollar.
Trading volumes were expected to remain light on Monday with U.S. markets set to remain closed for the Labor Day holiday.
USD/CAD eased off 1.2907, the pair’s lowest since August 26, to hit 1.2934 during early U.S. trade, still down 0.42%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2827, the low of August 26 and resistance at 1.3049, the high of August 29.
The greenback remained under pressure after data on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in August, disappointing expectations for an increase of 180,000.
The U.S. unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9% this month, confounding expectations for a downtick to 4.8%.
The report also showed that average hourly earnings rose 0.1% in August, below expectations for a 0.2% increase.
The disappointing data dampened expectations for a near-term rate hike, as Fed officials recently indicated that the pace of interest rate increases will be data-dependent.
Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar was boosted as oil prices moved sharply higher on Monday, after Saudi Arabia and Russia signed a joint statement to cooperate on stabilizing oil markets.
The loonie was higher against the euro, with EUR/CAD declining 0.52% to 1.4412.