The Canadian dollar weakened against its US peer as the report showed that the retail sales in Canada unexpectedly decreased for the second month.
The Canadian retail sales decreased 0.3 percent in January, posting the second decline in two months. Analysts predicted growth by 1.1 percent. The main contributor to the decline was the lower sales at new car dealers. The Standard & Poorâs 500 Index dropped 0.4 percent.
On the positive note, the composite leading index rose 0.8 percent in February, double its gain in each of the previous three months. Somewhat lower increase by 0.7 percent was expected. April delivery for crude oil jumped as much as 2.2 percent to $104.54 per barrel in New York, the highest price since March 10, after falling earlier 0.9 percent to $101.43.
USD/CAD rose from 0.9804 to 0.9822 today as of 00:53 GMT, following the advance from 0.9781 to 0.9803 yesterday. EUR/CAD traded at 1.3913, almost unchanged from its opening level of 1.3915.
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