Retail sales were up 3.6% to $57.6 billion in March, led by higher sales at building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers, and clothing and clothing accessories stores. Sales at food and beverage stores declined. Statistics Canada is providing an advance estimate of retail sales, which suggests that sales declined 5.1% in April. Owing to its preliminary nature, this figure will be revised. This unofficial estimate was calculated based on responses received from 46% of companies surveyed. The average final response rate for the survey over the previous 12 months has been 90.7%.
The April projection of a downward number caused the Canadian dollar to weaken slightly, commodities are a mixed bag this morning with oil up 3% and copper down 2% allowing the CAD to stay on the weaker side.
Cryptocurrencies are generally down on China’s calls for a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading patterns, the volatility of these cryptocurrencies add financial instability to the overall markets.
The USDCAD will likely trade over the 1.2100 mark today.
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