Chris Redfern: Canada's sprint finish

It is unusual for the Australian and NZ dollars to be at opposite ends of the currency achievement list but that would have been the case in the last week had it not been for a late run by the Canadian dollar.

The Loonie's break came on Friday afternoon after news of a fall in Canada's unemployment rate to 6.9 per cent and the creation of 43,000 jobs in March, more than twice as many as expected.

The Australian dollar's helping hand - and the third-placed South African rand's - was the American employment data. Although only 192,000 people were added to US non-farm payrolls in March, 8,000 fewer than forecast, revisions to the previous two months meant an extra 29,000 workers in the first quarter of the year.

The news was of no particular help to the US dollar, allegedly because investors had expected even better numbers, but it sent commodity-related currencies higher.

It sent the NZ dollar higher too, but not by enough to wipe out the week's earlier losses. An IMF report said the currency was overvalued by between 5 per cent and 15 per cent and investors took the hint, even though the same report predicted steadily-rising NZ interest rates over the next two years.

The euro wobbled on Thursday during the European Central Bank president's monthly press conference.

Mario Draghi let it be known that the governing council had been discussing the use of quantitative easing to stimulate the Euroland economy, crank up inflation and weaken the euro.

He said the council had not yet decided to go down the QE path, but investors figured that if such a decision was not in the wind the president would have made a better fist of dodging the question.