- USD/CAD pair gained traction in early American session.
- US Dollar Index advances to fresh 9-day highs above 92.00.
- Retail Sales in Canada fell for the second straight month in January.
After spending the first half of the day in a relatively tight range below 1.2500, the USD/CAD pair gained traction in the last hour and touched a daily high of 1.2526. As of writing, the pair was up 0.27% on the day at 1.2518.
Earlier in the day, the data published by Statistics Canada showed that Retail Sales in January fell by 1.1% to $52.5 billion and marked the second straight monthly decline. Although this reading came in slightly better than the market expectation, it didn’t allow the loonie to find demand.
Meanwhile, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is struggling to stage a convincing rebound after breaking below $60 on Thursday and allowing the USD’s market valuation to continue to drive USD/CAD’s movements.
DXY breaks above 92.00
On the other hand, the US Dollar Index climbed to a fresh 9-day high above 92.00 in the early American session and provided a boost to USD/CAD.
Although there were no significant macroeconomic data releases from the US on Friday, the market sentiment soured after the US Federal Reserve announced that it will let the temporary big bank leverage rule expire by the end of March. With the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 indexes starting the day in the negative territory, the DXY continued to edge higher and was last seen gaining 0.27% on the day at 92.10.
Technical levels to watch for
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