CAD Rises After US Weak Consumer Spending

June 26, 2014 Share Print 0

The Canadian dollar was slightly higher Thursday amid mixed commodity prices and a tepid read on American consumer spending.

The loonie was up 0.06 of a cent to 93.33 cents US.

The U.S. Commerce Department says consumer spending rose 0.2 per cent last month after no gain in April, missing expectations for a 0.4 per cent rise.

The data was an unpleasant surprise as consumer spending accounts for 70 per cent of the American economy.

And the numbers came out a day after another report showed that the American economy contracted in the first quarter by 2.9 per cent, larger than the two per cent contraction economists had expected. The numbers were largely shrugged off as the performance was tied to severe winter weather.

But BMO Capital Markets says while it sees an improvement for the second quarter, it’s now looking at annualized growth of around three per cent, down sharply from earlier estimates of 3.8 per cent growth.

via Globe and Mail

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.