CAD holds onto gains heading into Friday
Daily Currency Update
The Canadian dollar held onto the small gains it made this week as oil prices moved higher, and markets hoped for a rate cut from the Federal Reserve. Later this morning April Retail Sales is set to be released. This is expected to show a bump of 0.7% in sales after they fell off -0.2% in March. Oil held onto recent gains as indications of inventories are being drawn down and demand rises with flare-ups in global tensions. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price sat over $81 a barrel this morning.Key Movers
The US Dollar Index (DXY) held its position to end the week. This weighted measure of USD performance versus other major currencies was up close to 1% this month as the EUR and GBP slide. On the data from today, the June S&P Manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) is set to be released. The PMI index measures confidence amongst purchasing managers in the manufacturing sector and is expected to fall slightly from 51.3 to 51. Any reading over 50 shows remaining optimism in the US economy.The Euro continued to fall against the USD as political uncertainty in France remained due to the snap election call last week. There was also waning confidence in the two biggest European economies showing as the Manufacturing PMI data in both Germany and France showed negative trends. In Germany, the scale dropped from 45.4 last month to 43.4 in June. The French data showed a smaller drop from 48.9 to 48.2. In both cases though, this was a surprise as economists had expected a turn back higher.
Expected Ranges
- EUR/CAD: 1.4622 - 1.4715 ▼
- GBP/CAD: 1.7297 - 1.7298 ▼
- AUD/CAD: 0.9104 - 0.9197 ▼
- USD/CAD: 1.3675 - 0.3754 ▼