* Canadian dollar at C$1.2463 or 80.24 U.S. cents
* Bond prices mixed across the maturity curve
TORONTO, June 4 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar was little
changed against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday as investors
awaited the two countries' Friday employment reports for May and
oil prices held steady the day before an OPEC meeting.
With few domestic drivers on Thursday, market participants
were focused on overseas action, where the euro surged and the
benchmark for European borrowing costs, the 10-year German Bund
yield, recorded their biggest two-day gain since 1998.
The moves came after a surprise return to inflation in the
eurozone and after Mario Draghi, president of the European
Central Bank, indicated it would not add more stimulus because
of rising yields.
* At 8:56 a.m. EDT (1256 GMT), the Canadian dollar
was trading at C$1.2463 to the greenback, or 80.24 U.S. cents,
not far from the Bank of Canada's official close of C$1.2453, or
80.30 U.S. cents on Wednesday.
* The currency's strongest level of the session was
C$1.2437, while its weakest was C$1.2492.
* In the United States, the number of Americans filing new
claims for unemployment benefits last week fell by 8,000,
slightly more than expected, to a seasonally adjusted 276,000,
pointing to labor market resilience despite only moderate
economic growth.
* Canada's Ivey PMI data for May is due at 10:00 a.m. EDT
.
* U.S. crude prices were down 0.52 percent at $59.33,
while Brent crude lost 0.45 percent to $63.51. A weaker
greenback was offsetting worries over a global supply glut ahead
of Friday's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries. OPEC is widely expected to maintain a
production target of 30 million barrels per day, despite calls
from some quarters to cut supplies in order to support prices.
* The Canadian dollar, which was weaker than many of its key
currency counterparts, is expected to trade between C$1.2370 and
C$1.2500 against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, according to
National Bank Financial.
* Canadian government bond prices were mixed across the
maturity curve, with the longer-term bonds rising. The two-year
was up 4 Canadian cents to yield 0.587 percent, while
the benchmark 10-year rose 16 Canadian cents to
yield 1.762 percent.
* The Canada-U.S. two-year bond spread was -8.1 basis
points, while the 10-year spread was -57.8 basis points.
(Reporting by Solarina Ho; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)