USD/CAD at 1.0070 as Building Permits Rise

The Canadian dollar strengthened against almost all of its most-traded counterparts after a government report showed March building permits increased more than forecast.

The currency rose against peers from commodity exporting nations such as Australia and New Zealand as the value of permits issued by municipalities climbed 8.6 percent to C$6.45 billion ($6.40 billion), following a revised 1.5 percent increase in February, Statistics Canada said in Ottawa. The increase outstripped all 12 responses in a Bloomberg economist survey with a median estimate of a 1.3 percent rise. Canada posted its first international merchandise trade surplus in a year in March, and February gross domestic product growth was 0.3 percent compared to a media forecast of 0.2 percent.

“Some of the data is coming out a little bit better than expected,” Matthew Perrier, director of foreign exchange at Bank of Montreal, said by phone from Toronto. “Canada’s doing a little bit better — when it weakened off in the middle part of last month, it didn’t weaken off quite as far as it did in March. The weakness is a little shallower with each move so that seems to be trending in Canada’s favor.”

Bloomberg

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