Forex - USD/CAD gains on sluggish Canadian retail sales report

Forexpros - The U.S. dollar firmed against its Canadian counterpart on Tuesday after Canadian retail sales numbers missed expectations.

Solid data out of the U.S. housing sector meanwhile bolstered the greenback against the loonie.

In U.S. trading on Tuesday, USD/CAD hit 1.0299, up 0.15%, up from a low of 1.0272 and off a high of 1.0311.

The pair sought to test support at 1.0183, Thursday's low, and resistance at 1.0335, the high from Sept. 17.

Statistics Canada reported earlier that retail sales rose 0.6% in July from June, below forecasts for a 1% gain. Core retail sales were up 1%, in line with forecasts.

The lackluster data sent investors favoring the U.S. dollar over its Canadian cousin, especially after U.S. housing data offset conflicting comments from Federal Reserve officials.

The dollar fell last week after the Fed made no changes to its USD85 billion bond-buying program, as many investors were expecting the U.S. central bank to trim the total by USD10 billion or more.

Late last week and early this week, however, conflicting statements from monetary officials have made it unclear when the Fed will begin scaling back its bond-buying program, though an underlying consensus exists that tapering will begin this year.

On Friday, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said the Fed could decide at its October monetary policy meeting to taper its USD85 billion monthly asset-purchasing program, which keeps the greenback weak to spur recovery.

The Federal Reserve will hold its next monetary policy meeting Oct. 29-30 but is not due to hold a press conference that day, which left many expecting a decision to taper asset purchases to come in December before Bullard's comments.

On Monday, however, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley said monetary authorities want to be sure recovery is sustained before dismantling stimulus programs.

Separately, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, a noted policy hawk, said on Monday the decision to keep the Fed's bond-buying program unchanged has damaged the institution's credibility.

The dollar saw only slight headwinds after soft consumer sentiment data hit the wire earlier Tuesday.

The Conference Board’s index of U.S. consumer confidence ticked down to 79.7 in September from 81.8 in August.

Analysts were expecting the figure to dip to 79.9.

Solid housing data eventually bolstered the greenback.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities increased 12.4% on year in July, in line with market expectations.

The Canadian dollar, meanwhile, was down against the euro and down against the yen, with EUR/CAD up 0.06% and trading at 1.3886 and CAD/JPY down 0.17% at 95.96.

On Wednesday, the U.S. is to release data on durable goods orders, a leading indicator of production, in addition to a report on new home sales.