Investing.com - The U.S. dollar climbed to six-year highs against its Canadian counterpart on Friday, as market sentiment weakened after disappointing U.S. economic reports, while data also showed that Canada's unemployment rate rose unexpectedly last month.
USD/CAD hit 1.2816 during early U.S. trade, the pair's highest since March 2009; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2783, advancing 0.77%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2617, Thursday's low and resistance at 1.3063.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that producer prices fell 0.5% last month, confounding expectations for a 0.3% gain, after a 0.8% decline in January.
Core producer prices, which exclude food, energy and trade, also slipped 0.5% in February, compared to expectations for a 0.1% rise, after a 0.1% downtick the previous month.
Separately, the University of Michigan said that its consumer sentiment index fell to 91.2 this month from 95.4 in February, disappointing expectations for a rise to 95.5.
The University of Michigan also said that its inflation expectations for the next 12 months rose to 3.0% in March from 2.8% last month.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported that the number of employed people declined by 1,000 in February, compared to expectations for a 5,000 drop, after an increase of 35,400 the previous month.
The report also showed that Canada's unemployment rate rose to 6.8% last month from 6.6% in January, confounding expectations for an uptick to 6.7%.
The loonie was higher against the euro, with EUR/CAD slipping 0.20% to 1.3467.