Investing.com - The U.S. dollar trimmed gains against its Canadian counterpart on Friday, after the release of positive Canadian inflation data, but the greenback remained close to six-week highs as expectations for a June rate hike by the Federal Reserve continued to support the greenback.
USD/CAD pulled back from 1.3133, the session high, to hit 1.3101 during early U.S. trade, steady for the day.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2890, the low of May 15 and resistance at 1.3155, Thursday’s high.
Statistics Canada said the consumer price index rose 0.3% in April, in line with expectations and after a 0.6% gain the previous month. Year-on-year, consumer prices increased by 1.7%, as expected.
Core CPI, which excludes the eight most volatile items, rose by 0.2% last month, beating expectations for an uptick of 0.1%.
A separate report showed that Canada’s retail sales dropped 1.0% in March, compared to expectations for a 0.6% slip and after a revised 0.6% gain the previous month.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, fell 0.3% in March, confounding expectations for a 0.4% fall.
The greenback remained supported after the Fed’s April meeting minutes on Wednesday showed that officials said a June rate hike would be appropriate if economic data indicated that growth was picking up in the second quarter and employment and inflation were firming.
In addition, New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said on Thursday that the U.S. economy could be strong enough to warrant a rate hike in June or July.
The loonie was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD gaining 0.33% to 1.4717.