USD/CAD: Canadian Dollar Higher

 | Jan 26, 2018 09:55

The Canadian dollar has posted gains in the Friday session. Currently, the pair is trading at 1.2310, down 0.53% on the day. On the release front, there are two key indicators, either of which could impact on USD/CAD. Canada releases CPI, which is expected to decline 0.3%. The U.S. will publish Advance GDP, which is forecast to post a strong gain of 3.0%.

On Thursday, Canada and the U.S. both posted mixed numbers, and the Canadian dollar didn’t show much movement. Canadian Core Retail Sales jumped 1.6% in November, crushing the estimate of 0.8%. This marked the strongest gain since January. Retail Sales couldn’t keep pace, as the small gain of 0.2% missed the estimate of 0.7%. In the U.S., unemployment claims rose to 233,000, but still beat the estimate of 239,000. Housing numbers continue to soften, as New Home Sales fell to 625,000, well off the estimate of 679,000. This follows the trend we saw earlier in the week, when Existing Home Sales slowed to 5.57 million, short of the estimate of 5.72 million.

The Canadian economy has been performing fairly well, and recent employment numbers have been much stronger than expected. However, there is a dark cloud on the horizon regarding NAFTA. The free-trade agreement is critical for the Canadian economy, so threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to blow up the agreement are causing genuine concern for the government and the Bank of Canada. Negotiations between Canada, Mexico and the U.S., which are slated to end in March, have not yielded much progress, with the U.S. side reportedly showing little flexibility. Trump has repeatedly said he is unhappy with the deal, and may prefer a new bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Canada. At the same time, there are also many U.S. companies that benefit from the current deal and are opposed to the U.S. pulling the plug. If NAFTA is terminated, it’s a good bet that the Canadian dollar will take a tumble.

USD/CAD Fundamentals

Friday (Jan. 26)

  • 8:30 Canadian CPI. Estimate -0.3%.
  • 8:30 US Advance GDP. Estimate 3.0%
  • 8:30 US Core Durable Goods Orders. Estimate 0.5%
  • 8:30 US Advance GDP Price Index. Estimate 2.3%
  • 8:30 US Durable Goods Orders. Estimate 0.9%

*All release times are GMT

*Key events are in bold

USD/CAD for Friday, Jan. 26, 2018