It was the Canadian dollar which made the running last week; unfortunately it was running in the wrong direction.
The Loonie lost six cents to sterling and two and a half to the US dollar, touching four-year lows against both, as a combination of negative factors dragged it lower.
First, finance minister Jim Flaherty expressed support for the idea of a weaker currency. Then the Ivey purchasing managers' index, the barometer of private sector business activity, fell six points to 46.3, well below the halfway point at 50 that separates growth from contraction.
Finally, Friday's data showed the loss of 46k jobs and unemployment rising to 7 per cent.
The US employment figures were not as bad as that but the December rise in nonfarm payrolls was only 74k, well short of the 196k that investors had been expecting.
A 38k upward revision to November's number and a fall in the rate of unemployment from 7 per cent to 6.7 per cent were of no consolation to investors and the US dollar took a dive. On the week it lost a cent and a third to sterling and one cent to the euro.
On average sterling was stronger by 0.6 per cent - equivalent to one US cent - against the other dozen most actively-traded currencies but the tumbling Loonie flattered that performance. The pound was unchanged against the euro and the yen and was fractionally softer against the Australian and NZ dollars.
Sterling reminded investors of its vulnerability on Friday when it suffered a half-cent drop after UK industrial and manufacturing production were unchanged on the month having been expected to rise by 0.4 per cent.
Its main tests this week will be Tuesday's inflation data and Friday's retail sales figures. In both cases the higher the number, the better it will be for the pound.
