Investing.com - The U.S. dollar remained slightly higher against the Canadian dollar on Tuesday, after data showed that Canadian building permits posted the largest drop on record in August.
USD/CAD was up 0.35% to 1.1167, from 1.1145 ahead of the data, holding below highs of 1.1187.
The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is also known, showed little reaction after Statistics Canada reported that the number of new building permits issued dropped by 27.3% in August, much worse than expectations for a decline of 6.5%.
July’s figure was revised to a gain of 11.6% from a previously reported increase of 11.8%.
The decline was due in large part to lower construction intentions for non-residential buildings in Quebec and residential buildings in Ontario.
Demand for the greenback continued to be underpinned after Monday’s declines, as investors took profits on the strong gains the greenback posted Friday from a robust U.S. jobs report.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.13% to 86.01, off Monday’s lows of 85.73.
It notched up its twelfth consecutive weekly gain last week, the longest rally since the index was created in 1971 amid heightened expectations that the deepening U.S. recovery may prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner.
Elsewhere, the loonie was slightly lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD edging up 0.07% to 1.4092.
The single currency came under pressure after data on Tuesday showed that industrial output in Germany dropped by 4.0% in August. It was the largest decline since early 2009 and was much worse than forecasts for a fall of 1.5%.
The report came one day after data showed that German factory orders fell 5.7% in August, fuelling fears that the euro area’s largest economy is falling into a recession.