Investing.com - The U.S. dollar rose against its Canadian counterpart on Friday, boosted by the release of upbeat U.S. retail sales data and as declining oil prices weighed on the commodity-linked Canadian currency.
USD/CAD hit 1.2915 during early U.S. trade, the pair’s highest since Wednesday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2897, gaining 0.43%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2771, Thursday’s low and resistance at 1.2978, the high of May 10.
The U.S. Commerce Department said retail sales increased by 1.3% last month, compared to expectations for a rise of 0.8%. Retail sales for March dropped 0.3%, whose figure was revised up from an initial 0.4% decline.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales, increased by 0.8% in April, beating forecasts for an advance of 0.5%.
A separate report showed that U.S. producer price inflation rose by 0.2% in April, compared to expectations for a 0.3% gain, after a 0.1% slip the previous month. Year-on-year, producer prices were flat.
Core PPI, which excludes food and energy, ticked up 0.1% last month, in line with expectations.
Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar remained under pressure as oil prices declined on Friday, after Russia warned that a global crude supply glut could last into next year.
The loonie was higher against the euro, with EUR/CAD was steady at 1.4606.
Official data earlier showed that euro zone gross domestic product rose to 0.5% in the first quarter, from 0.3% in the preceding quarter.
That was below the initial reading of 0.6% released on April 29 and consensus that was expecting no change.
Year-on-year, GDP in the single currency bloc rose 1.5%, also below the initial estimate, the fourth quarter reading and analyst forecasts for growth of 1.6%.