Home Daily Commentaries Canadian dollar holds onto gains

Canadian dollar holds onto gains

Daily Currency Update

CAD - Canadian DollarAfter open three straight weeks stronger against the US dollar, the Canadian dollar remained flat from last’s weeks gains today.USDCAD is up just over two-tenths of a percent since it opened this morning. There have been recent movements in the Canadian direction. The US response to the pandemic, global trade tensions and recent announcements from the Federal Reserve all contributed to the US dollar’s softness. Over the weekend, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a COVID-19 treatment. Like other vaccine-related updates, market sentiment shifted riskier assets and benefited the Canadian dollar among other commodity currencies.This week, there are few items of market news that could shift demand. Many are looking to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at the annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium on Thursday.

Key Movers

The Great British pound has fallen since Friday morning, despite manufacturing and services data coming in better than expected. The manufacturing and services data both came in above the expansion figure 50.0 and exceeded the forecast figures. But with warnings of an impending crises for retailers, a jobs crunch, ballooning public debt and signs that a Brexit trade deal won’t meet its end of year deadline, this was only going to weigh on the pound.The Australian dollar has been on a nice run. It touched on a 12-month high at 0.7269 earlier in the week but has come down to open at 0.7160 this morning after sliding due to strong US PMI data. From a technical perspective, traders will watch to see if the Australian dollar can break the 0.7200 barrier again and push upwards based on the talks at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium later in the week.

Expected Ranges

  • EUR/CAD: 1.552 - 1.561 ▼
  • GBP/CAD: 1.722 - 1.728 ▼
  • AUD/CAD: 0.942 - 0.948 ▼
  • USD/CAD: 1.314 - 1.321 ▲