The Canadian Dollar weakened against its US counterpart after factory orders took an unexpected nosedive, declining by 2.4% in April from March.
According to Statistics Canada, sales were dragged down by the slowdown in sales of petroleum based products and refinery output. Analysts had been forecasting sales to increase by 0.3% following strong jobs and housing data.
“Its disappointing news certainly the consensus was expecting a gain, not a significant one, but an up-tick,” Emanuella Enenajor, an economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said by phone from Toronto. “It means that some of those indicators we saw, those really robust housing-starts number, those robust employment numbers, everything is not going hunky-dory.
There are still sectors that are struggling, so people looking to go long the Canadian dollar, now might not be the time.” A long position is a bet an asset will increase in value.
The data showed that sales were down in 13 of 21 industries, representing around 86% of Canadian manufacturing. Coal and petroleum product sales dropped by 8.8% in April and have fallen by 14% since November 2012.
“On a year by year basis factory sales fell by 3.3%. Sales excluding motor vehicles and parts decreased 2.5 percent to C$41.9 billion,” Statistics Canada said. Excluding price changes, a better indicator of the industry’s contribution to economic growth, factory sales fell 1.6 percent.
Current Canadian Dollar (CAD) Exchange Rates
< Down > Up – Little Changed
The Canadian Dollar/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.9831 <
The Canadian Dollar /Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7373
The Canadian Dollar/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.0241 <
The Canadian Dollar /New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.2199
The Euro/Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3562 >
The New Zealand Dollar/Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8197 >
The Australian Dollar/Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.9764>
(Correct as of 15:20pm GMT)
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