Canadian Dollar Reversing Bearish Trend

 | Oct 08, 2015 09:05AM ET

Canadian dollar strengthened following GDP report last week indicating Canadian economy continued expanding after contracting in the first half of 2015. Labor market report on Friday is expected to indicate unemployment declined in September. Will the positive momentum carry the Canadian dollar higher against the US dollar?


As a result of monetary easing by Bank of Canada which cut interest rates twice in 2015 Canadian economy continued expanding in July with GDP growing 0.3% in seasonally adjusted terms over the previous month. This was the second month of growth so far this year, which exceeded expectations of 0.2% increase after a downward revised expansion of 0.4% in June. Retail sales, which is a significant component of consumer spending driving GDP growth, also grew for the third consecutive month in July, expanding 0.5 % over the previous month. Since the start of October oil prices have risen over 8%, providing additional support to Canadian dollar. Next significant release of economic data in Canada is scheduled for October 9 when labor market data will be published, with unemployment in September expected to decline to 6.9% from 7% in August, indicating continued strength for Canadian currency unless of course the report surprises to the negative side. On the other hand US dollar weakened after the release of disappointing jobs report on October 2 as investors pushed back timing of an expected rate hike by the Federal Reserve into 2016.