* Canadian dollar at C$1.3943 or 71.72 U.S. cents
* Bond prices lower across the maturity curve
TORONTO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar firmed
against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, although it pared some
gains after crude oil prices turned lower and U.S. third-quarter
economic growth was downgraded less than anticipated.
Oil prices were unable to sustain a bounce after falling to
11-year lows in the previous session.
U.S. crude CLc1 prices were down 0.25 percent to $35.72 a
barrel, while Brent crude LCOc1 lost 0.63 percent to
$36.12. O/R
U.S. gross domestic product grew at a 2 percent annual pace
in the third quarter, slightly slower than the 2.1 percent
previously reported, but better than the 1.9 percent pace
economists had expected.
At 9:17 a.m. EST (1417 GMT), the Canadian dollar CAD=D4
was trading at C$1.3943 to the greenback, or 71.72 U.S. cents,
stronger than Monday's close of C$1.3965, or 71.61 U.S. cents.
The currency's strongest level of the session was C$1.3917,
while its weakest was C$1.3965. It touched a more than 11-year
low of C$1.4003 on Friday.
Canadian average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll
employees rose 0.5 percent in October from the previous month,
data from Statistics Canada showed, and 1.9 percent from a year
earlier. The number of non-farm payroll jobs rose 23,900
following an increase of 51,700 in September.
Canadian government bond prices were lower across the
maturity curve, with the two-year CA2YT=RR price down 3.5
Canadian cents to yield 0.507 percent and the benchmark 10-year
CA10YT=RR falling 22 Canadian cents to yield 1.405 percent.
The Canada-U.S. two-year bond spread was 0.7 of a basis
point narrower at -45.8 basis points, while the 10-year spread
was 1 basis point narrower at -80.4 basis points, trimming
recent outperformance for Canadian government bonds.
Canadian GDP data for October is awaited on Wednesday. The
median estimate in a Reuters poll is for a 0.2 percent gain
after falling 0.5 percent in September. CA/DIARY