Investing.com - The U.S. dollar climbed against its Canadian counterpart on Friday, after the release of disappointing retail sales and inflation data from Canada and as the previous session’s strong U.S. economic reports continued to support the greenback.
USD/CAD hit 1.2892 during early U.S. trade, the pair’s highest since Wednesday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2852, advancing 0.55%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2759, Thursday’s low and a seven-week low and resistance at 1.2976, the high of August 15.
Statistics Canada said the consumer price index declined by 0.2% in July, compared to estimates for a 0.1% drop and after June’s 0.2% rise.
Year-on-year, consumer prices rose 1.3% last month, in line with expectations and after a 1.5% gain in June.
Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, was flat in July, in line with the consensus forecast.
A separate report showed that Canada’s retail sales dropped 0.1% in June, disappointing expectations for an increase of 0.5% and after a 0.2% advance in May.
Core retail sales, excluding automobiles, fell 0.8% in June, after a 0.8% increase the previous month and compared to expectations for a 0.3% rise.
The dollar remained supported after data on Thursday showed that initial jobless claims decreased by 4,000 to 262,000 last week, compared to expectations for a 1,000 decline to 265,000.
Separately, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its manufacturing index rose to 2.0 this month from July’s reading of minus 2.9, in line with the consensus estimate.
The greenback had weakened broadly after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting released on Wednesday showed that policymakers were still divided over the need to raise interest rates this year.
However, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams on Thursday expressed his support for a U.S. interest rate hike in coming months, saying that waiting too long could be costly for the economy.
The loonie was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD gaining 0.24% to 1.4547.