The USD/CAD closed the week near its weekly high at 1.0501 as data in Canada was disappointing. The fall in crude oil prices also weighed on the CAD along with a lower price for gold, which reversed course at the end of the day on Friday, which helped the CAD move off the high of 1.0569. Canada’s dollar lost the most in more than two months as wholesale and retail sales fell and consumer-price gains stayed below the central bank’s inflation target for a 15th month, fueling concern the economy is slowing. The loonie, as the currency is nicknamed for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, touched a six-week low versus the U.S. dollar before data next week forecast to show Canadian gross domestic product shrank in June. The loonie fell against most major peers amid bets the Federal Reserve will slow stimulus. Government-bond yields climbed to a two-year high. Futures traders increased for the first time in six weeks their bets the Canadian dollar will fall against its U.S. peer, figures from the Washington-based Commodity Futures Trading Commission show. The difference in the number of wagers by hedge funds and other large speculators on a decline in the loonie versus those on a gain — so-called net shorts — was 9,544 on Aug. 20, compared with net shorts of 9,081 a week earlier. Canada’s economic output contracted 0.4 percent in June, helping to pare second-quarter growth to an annualized 1.5 percent, economists in a Bloomberg survey projected before a government report due Aug. 30. The economy expanded 2.5 percent in the first quarter according to Bloomberg
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 11:28:33 +0000
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