* Canadian dollar recovers to 97.47 U.S. cents * Carney"s speech makes no reference to current policy * Bonds mixed * Focus turns to Canada"s jobs data for February (Adds details) By Ka Yan Ng TORONTO, March 11 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar finishedhigher against the greenback for a 10th straight session onThursday as it rebounded from early losses along with otherriskier assets such as equities and crude oil. The Canadian dollar ended at C$1.0243 to the U.S. dollar,or 97.63 U.S. cents, up from Wednesday"s close of C$1.0259 tothe U.S. dollar, or 97.48 U.S. cents. The currency"s early softness, which took it to a one-weeklow at 96.86 U.S. cents, followed data that showed a smallerU.S. trade deficit, which spurred choppy trading in the U.S.dollar. But the losses did not stick, and the currency rallied tothe firmer end of its recent trading range as North Americanstock markets claimed moderate gains, and the price of crudeoil, an important Canadian export, turned slightly higher. Market focus through the day was on Friday"s release ofCanada"s February jobs report. Canada is expected to have added20,000 jobs in the month, according to median forecasts in aReuters survey. The unemployment rate is seen steady at 8.3percent. [ID:nN05244644] "Commodities and equities have really stabilized. I thinkthat"s part of the reason you saw no follow-through selling(from) earlier in the day. The markets are really just on holduntil the jobs numbers tomorrow," said Shane Enright, executivedirector, foreign exchange sales at CIBC World Markets. There was little reaction in the currency after a speech byBank of Canada Governor Mark Carney to university students inOttawa. The speech contained no reference to the central bank"scurrent policy. In an audience question-and-answer session, Carneyrepeated the central bank"s conditional pledge to hold interestrates low and said there was no need for it to have the samemonetary policy as the U.S. Federal Reserve. [ID:nN11238970] BONDS MIXED Bond prices were mixed. Short-dated bonds were pressured byearly domestic data that was stronger than expected and showedthe recovery was gaining more traction than some had expected. [ID:nN1180093] Canada"s trade surplus rose more than expected in January,while fourth-quarter capacity use had its biggest jump in threeyears. Other data showed Canadian new home prices climbed againin January. All the data strengthened views that Canadianinterest rates would rise this year. Longer-term issues floated higher, alongside their U.S.counterparts, after a well-bid auction of U.S. Treasury bonds. [US/] The two-year government bond CA2YT=RR was off 2 Canadiancents to C$99.92 to yield 1.544 percent, while the 10-year bondCA10YT=RR was up 15 Canadian cents at C$101.82 to yield 3.517percent. (Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; editing by Peter Galloway)
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