Canada’s Core Retail Sales report is due today at 12:30 UTC, and it anchors the North American session’s data flow, with the Canadian dollar already trading firmer across most of its major crosses.
What Canada’s Core Retail Sales report measures
Core Retail Sales tracks the month-over-month change in the total value of retail sales, excluding automobiles. Stripping out big-ticket auto purchases removes a volatile category and leaves a cleaner read on underlying consumer demand. Because household spending makes up a large share of the economy, markets treat the release as a timely gauge of consumption momentum and a common input into growth expectations.
The forecast points to a -0.5% reading, which would be a swing lower from the previous month’s +0.5%. That gap between a prior expansion and a projected contraction is why the print is drawing attention on the CAD calendar.
How the CAD pairs are trading
Heading into the release, the Canadian dollar is broadly bid on the commodity-currency crosses. AUDCAD is the biggest mover, down 0.77% at 0.99249, followed by NZDCAD off 0.59% at 0.80025 and GBPCAD lower by 0.53% at 1.86675. EURCAD is down 0.32% at 1.60477.
USDCAD is up 0.27% at 1.4103, the one listed pair where the loonie sits on the softer side against a firmer US dollar. CADJPY is up 0.21% at 112.17, with the Canadian dollar the stronger leg against the yen.
The Core Retail Sales figure is watched as a snapshot of Canadian consumer spending and how it lines up with the forecast and the prior month.
Descriptive market news from the ForexBullion Research Team. Not investment advice.
