USD/CAD Canadian Dollar Higher After US Durable Goods Disappoint

 | Jun 27, 2017 12:40AM ET

The Canadian dollar started the week gaining versus the US dollar. The comments from Bank of Canada (BoC) policy makers on June 11 had pushed the loonie higher against the greenback, but the Fed turned up the rhetoric last week to even things out.

Fed members were mixed in their endorsement/criticism of the aggressive rate hike path, but most were in agreement that the central bank needs to start shrinking its massive balance sheet. The trillions of dollars which were accumulated as part of the Fed’s quantitive easing program and are still in the books of the CB need to be sold in a gradual manner for true normalization to be achieved.

The week started with few economic indicators to guide the market. New orders for US durable goods in May fell by 1.1 percent month to month, removing transportation items also disappointed with a 0.1 percent gain when 0.4 percent was expected. Second quarter growth has proven sluggish and the durable goods data hit the USD to the downside. The main champion for the dollar has been the Fed and this week there will be plenty of fedspeak to digest with three Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members due to speak on Tuesday.

Oil prices are higher on the North American session than last week. This all could change with the release of the US crude inventories on Wednesday at 10:30 am EDT. The OPEC oil production cut agreement has failed to spark a rally in energy prices when US and other non-agreement producers are ramping up their supply keeping the crude glut in place.