By Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, April 17 – The Canadian dollar was weaker at midday Friday, retreating from earlier gains as the currency was said to be seeing a correction ahead of the weekend.
At 11:50 CDT, the Canadian dollar was trading at US$0.8170 or US$1=C$1.2240 which compares with Thursday’s close of US$0.8210 or US$=C$1.2181. The currency had climbed as high as US$0.8271 or US$=C$1.2090 earlier in the day.
Better-than-expected inflation and retail sales data helped underpin the Canadian dollar in early activity.
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In a separate report, StatsCan data showed that retail sales were up 1.7% in February hitting C$42.2 billion. That marked the first increase in three months.
While the economic data was relatively supportive, the Canadian dollar has already posted very large gains relative to its US counterpart this week and profit-taking eventually came forward to put some pressure on the currency.
Losses in crude oil and the equity markets also weighed on the Canadian dollar.
At midday Friday the Toronto Stock Exchange was weaker, down 42.60 points at 11:50 CDT to sit at 15,344.17.
