TORONTO _ The Canadian dollar surged Friday morning as job creation figures for October blew past expectations.
The loonie was ahead 0.5 of a cent to 88.02 cents US as Statistics Canada reported that the economy created 43,100 jobs last month.
Analysts had forecast a loss of about 5,000 jobs after the economy cranked out 74,000 jobs in September. The umemployment rate dropped sharply to 6.5 per cent from 6.8 per cent.Jobs data from the U.S.
U.S. jobs data was softer than expected with 215,000 positions created during the month, lower than the 235,000 reading that economists had expected.
However, the U.S. jobless rate also fell, dropping to 5.8 per cent from 5.9 per cent.
Other economic data out Friday showed that Germany's exports rose sharply in September and factory production was also up.
Exports rose 5.5 per cent over August, in seasonally and calendar adjusted figures, almost offsetting the 5.8 per cent drop the previous month. Imports rose 5.4 per cent, widening the trade surplus to 18.5 billion euros. Industrial production rose 1.4 per cent over August.
Germany's economy shrank 0.2 per cent in the second quarter and many have predicted a third-quarter drop when figures come out next week _ putting the country into a technical recession.
Commodity prices were higher in the wake of the jobs data with December crude 72 cents higher to US$78.63 a barrel.
December copper was up three cents to US$3.04 a pound while December bullion gained $12.80 to US$1,155.40 an ounce.