Investing.com - The U.S. dollar climbed to fresh seven-month highs against its Canadian counterpart on Friday, as expectations for a near-term U.S. rate hike continued to support the greenback, while disappointing data from Canadian weighed on demand for the local currency.
USD/CAD hit 1.3351 during early U.S. trade, the pair’s highest since March; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3327, climbing 0.76%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3181, the low of October 13 and resistance at 1.3553.
The dollar continued to be underpinned by hopes for a 2016 rate increase, after New York Fed President William Dudley said on Wednesday that the U.S. central bank will likely raise interest rates later this year if the economy remains on its current trajectory.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported on Friday that the consumer price index ticked up 0.1% in September, disappointing expectations for an increase of 0.2% and after a 0.3% slip the previous month.
Year-on-year, consumer prices gained 1.3% last month, below expectations for a 1.5% climb.
Core CPI, which excludes the eight most volatile items, rose 0.2%, in line with projections.
A separate report showed that Canada’s retail sales fell 0.1% in August, compared to expectations for a 0.3% rise. Retail sales slipped 0.2% in July, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 0.1% downtick.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, were flat in August, confounding expectations for a 0.3% increase.
The loonie was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD gaining 0.32% to 1.4497.
But sentiment on the euro was fragile after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Thursday that an adjustment to the bank’s stimulus program could come in December and that its assessment would benefit from new economic projections to be drawn up by ECB forecasters.