• USD/CAD rises sharply to near 1.3600 after stronger-than-expected US labor market report.
• A robust pace in the US job growth data has forced traders to pare Fed’s 50 bps rate cut expectations.
• Higher Oil prices have strengthened the Canadian Dollar.

The USD/CAD pair climbs to near the round-level resistance of 1.3600 in Friday’s New York session. The Loonie asset strengthens as the United States (US) Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) report showed that labor demand remained robust and the wage growth accelerated in September, which has prompted a sharp upside move in the US Dollar (USD).

The US NFP report showed that the economy added 254K jobs, which was significantly higher than the estimates of 140K and the former release of 159K, upwardly revised from 142K. The Unemployment Rate decelerated to 4.1% from expectations and the August print of 4.2%. Annual Average Hourly Earnings, a key measure to wage growth, accelerated at a faster-than-expected pace to 4.0%. Month-on-month wage growth measure rose by 0.4%.

Signs of a sharp improvement in the labor market health have dented market expectations for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to deliver another larger-than-usual interest rate cut of 50 basis points (bps) in November. According to the CME FedWatch tool, the probability of the Fed reducing interest rates by a half-of-a-percentage in November has almost waned. The Fed started the policy-easing cycle with a 50-bps interest rate cut in September.

Fading Fed large rate cut expectations have led to a sharp uptick in the US Dollar, with the US Dollar Index (DXY) rising to a fresh two-week high above 102.50. 10-year US Treasury yields surge to near 3.96%.