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Canadian Dollar recoils on Wednesday, Canada Retail Sales disappoint

Published

7 months ago

April 24, 2024

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Canadian Dollar recoils on Wednesday, Canada Retail Sales disappoint

Canadian Dollar recedes across the board on Wednesday.
Canada Retail Sales broadly miss the mark, hurting Loonie.
US GDP, PCE inflation to dominate the latter half of the trading week.

The Canadian Dollar (CAD) is broadly softer on Wednesday, paring back recent gains and falling back against most of its major currency peers as one of the worst-performing currencies for the mid-week market session. Canadian Retail Sales flubbed forecasts, declining in February and kicking the legs out from beneath the CAD.

Canada is absent from the economic calendar for the remainder of the week, and investors will be pivoting to focus on key US data. US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and US Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Price Index inflation figures are slated for Thursday and Friday, respectively.

Daily digest market movers: Canadian Dollar pares gains as Canadian data slips

MoM Canadian Retail Sales declined -0.1% in February, improving from the previous month’s -0.3% decline but missing the forecasted 0.1% uptick.
Retail Sales Excluding Autos also tumbled -0.3% versus the forecast of 0.0%. January’s print was revised slightly lower to 0.4% from 0.5%.
A broad-market recovery in the US Dollar is further pressuring CAD as investors rethink Tuesday’s broad risk appetite rally.
Thursday’s Q1 US GDP is expected to print at 2.5% on an annualized basis, down from the previous print of 3.4%.
Traders are hoping that Friday’s US PCE Price Index holds steady at 0.3% in March.
Financial markets desperate for signs of rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) have grown increasingly frustrated with ongoing signs of stubborn inflation in the US economy. Friday’s figures will drive plenty of volatility as markets grapple with rate cut forecasts.

Canadian Dollar price today

The table below shows the percentage change of Canadian Dollar (CAD) against listed major currencies today. Canadian Dollar was the strongest against the Japanese Yen.

	USD	EUR	GBP	CAD	AUD	JPY	NZD	CHF
USD		0.06%	-0.01%	0.30%	-0.15%	0.34%	0.04%	0.25%
EUR	-0.04%		-0.08%	0.25%	-0.18%	0.27%	-0.01%	0.15%
GBP	0.01%	0.08%		0.33%	-0.11%	0.34%	0.07%	0.25%
CAD	-0.30%	-0.26%	-0.33%		-0.44%	0.01%	-0.26%	-0.09%
AUD	0.15%	0.18%	0.11%	0.43%		0.43%	0.18%	0.36%
JPY	-0.34%	-0.30%	-0.36%	0.00%	-0.46%		-0.23%	-0.10%
NZD	-0.03%	0.02%	-0.07%	0.25%	-0.19%	0.28%		0.18%
CHF	-0.23%	-0.15%	-0.25%	0.09%	-0.36%	0.12%	-0.17%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Euro from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the Japanese Yen, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent EUR (base)/JPY (quote).

Technical analysis: Canadian Dollar falls across the board, USD/CAD pulls back to key technical levels

The Canadian Dollar (CAD) fell a third of a percent against the US Dollar (USD) and Pound Sterling (GBP) on Wednesday, but a weak Japanese Yen (JPY) is competing with the CAD for last place.

The USD/CAD has risen back above the 1.3700 handle, testing chart territory north of the 200-hour Exponential Moving Average (EMA) near 1.3715. The pair bounced off the 1.3660 level to pare away Tuesday’s declines.

Wednesday’s pullback sends the USD/CAD into its first green trading day after five consecutive losing days. The pair is still down from the last swing high into 1.3850, and long-term technical support from the 200-day EMA rests near the 1.3500 handle at 1.3522.