The USD/CAD currency pair briefly rallied higher after the release of disappointing Canadian retail sales data for the month of February, but later declined. The currency pair performed much better today even as the retail sales data weakened the Canadian dollar, which came under intense selling pressure briefly after the release.
The currency pair was trading in a choppy manner today as it declined before the release then rallied briefly, but was on a downward trend at the time of writing.
The Canadian dollar weakened briefly against the US dollar after the release of the retail sales data for February by Statistics Canada, which indicated that the retail sales contracted by 0.6% as opposed to a flat expectation. The retail sales excluding auto sales contracted by 0.1%, which was lesser than the expected 0.3% decline.
The US dollar, as tracked by the US Dollar Index, was stronger against the Canadian dollar given that the Trump trade might be reignited. The US President, Donald Trump, is expected to announce the White House tax reform proposal at 17:30 GMT, which was a crucial component of the Trump trade.
The Canadian dollar’s future performance is likely to be affected by global oil prices given that crude oil is one of Canada’s major exports. The currency pair is also likely to be affected by the release of Canada’s GDP data scheduled for Friday.
The USD/CAD was trading at 1.3566 as at 15:19 GMT having declined from a high of 1.3609 earlier today. The CAD/JPY was trading at 82.25 having opened the day’s session trading at 81.82.
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