The Canadian dollar rose on Friday after the monthly gross domestic product (GDP) beat the forecast with a 0.2 percent gain. The loonie is up almost 1 percent on the final day of the trading week. The currency is still showing a weekly loss against the greenback as NAFTA uncertainty and the U.S. Federal Reserve rate announcement put downward pressure.
The rise today comes with higher expectations of a Canadian interest rate lift in October. The Bank of Canada (BoC) held rates in September ahead of a highly anticipated Fed rate hike in September that came to pass. The US central bank has forecasted another rate hike in 2018 and 2 or 3 more next year as part of its economic projections published Wednesday.
BoC Governor Stephen Poloz spoke on Thursday addressing the rising inflation and Friday’s GDP data point puts a rate hike firmly on the table in the short term.
NAFTA negotiations have not made big inroads as the US met with Canada with the goal of turning two bilateral agreements into a trilateral one.
With a considerable amount of work still to be done in bridging the gap between US and Canada, the US-Mexico agreement will be published tonight with a possibility of leaving the door open for Canada to join.
It is that possibility that has kept the loonie gaining despite the NAFTA train moving without Canada.
Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.
Alfonso Esparza
trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Latest posts by Alfonso Esparza (see all)
- Market Rally Still Going Low Holiday Volumes Awaiting Start of 2020 - 27 December 2019
- Market Awaits China Retaliation on Trade - 29 November 2019
- Alibaba to Close Order Book Ahead of Huge IPO - 18 November 2019