CANADA FX DEBT-Canadian dollar hits a near two-week low on uncertain Fed outlook

By Fergal Smith

TORONTO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar weakened to a near two-week low against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday after U.S. jobs data failed to clear up an uncertain outlook for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, contributing to the recent state of investor risk aversion.

The loonie CAD= was trading 0.3% lower at 1.4095 per U.S. dollar, or 70.95 U.S. cents, after touching its weakest intraday level since November 7 at 1.4107.

U.S. job growth accelerated in September, but the unemployment rate increased to a four-year high of 4.4% and the economy in August shed jobs for the second time this year as employers navigate an uncertain environment.

"The picture is murky, and the Fed is essentially flying blind into its final meeting of the year," said Kevin Ford, FX & macro strategist at Convera. "Even strong jobs data and Nvidia beating expectations haven't been enough to calm market jitters."

Wall Street's main indexes lost ground as early enthusiasm driven by Nvidia's earnings faded with investors questioning lofty valuations in the technology sector.

The U.S. dollar held on to its recent gains against a basket of major currencies, while the price of oil CLc1, one of Canada's major exports, was trading 0.1% lower at $59.41 a barrel.

Domestic data had little impact. Canadian producer prices rose 1.5% in October from September on higher prices for primary non-ferrous metal products, as well as lumber and other sawmill products, while prices were up 6% year-over-year.

Canadian retail sales data for September is due on Friday. Analysts expect sales to decline 0.7% after rising 1% in August.

Canadian government bond yields moved lower across the curve, tracking moves in U.S. Treasuries. The 10-year CA10YT=RR was down 3.2 basis points at 3.230%, pulling back from an earlier two-and-a-half-month high at 3.276%.