U.S. retail sales for July had the best showing in four months gaining 0.5 percent from the month before. The improvement comes at a time when employment appears to be weakening while market volatility has seen wild swings in price activity.
For the month, auto sales increased by 0.4 percent while nine of the thirteen main categories showed a gain in sales last month, led by electronics stores, furniture retailers, auto dealers and service stations
Source: Bloomberg
News today that deadly levels of radiation were detected outside reactor buildings at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power facility caused the yen to fall against all its major counterparts.
The yen weakened 0.4 percent to 81.68 per dollar at 3:05 p.m. in New York, from 81.34 March. The Japanese currency fell 0.5 percent to 115.14 per euro. The euro was little changed at $1.4096 after falling as much as 0.5 percent.
Source: Bloomberg
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by more than expected in January according to data supplied by the US Labor Department. CPI rose by 0.4 percent compared to projections of 0.3 percent with higher food and energy prices contributing to the increase. The Core CPI which excludes these items rose by 0.2 percent.
“We are seeing turn-of-the year price increases,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, said before the report. “Firms are really struggling with this. They want to raise prices and want to feel their way through and get away with it before consumers start to protest.”
Source: Bloomberg
A two-day drop in commodity prices has pushed the Canadian dollar to its lowest level in a week against the US dollar. The loonie declined 0.4 percent to 99.77 cents per US dollar this morning in New York.
“It’s broadly risk-off, with equities weaker and commodities weaker,” said Camilla Sutton, head of currency strategy at Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto. “There was lots of overnight non-U.S. data that was disappointing. Canada is outperforming on the crosses just because of the strength in the U.S. dollar.”
Source: Bloomberg
The Canadian dollar gained 0.4 percent to 99.72 cents per US dollar in early morning trading in New York. An uptick in commodity prices yesterday helped push the Canadian dollar higher despite comments from Canada’s Finance Minister suggesting that unemployment remains a “challenge”.
“We’re seeing weakness in the U.S. dollar, so strength for all currencies, including Canada,” said Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto. “The lag continues to be from the spill-off effects of Mr. Flaherty’s comments yesterday with respect to caution for the upcoming jobs data.”
Source: Bloomberg
Falling commodity prices forced the Canadian dollar below parity with the US dollar on speculation that China must take steps to slow growth. The Canadian dollar depreciated 0.4 percent to 99.97 cents per U.S. dollar at 8:24 a.m. in Toronto, having earlier touched C$1.0006.
“The growing likelihood of more remedial measures from Chinese authorities to stand a stronger pace of growth has boosted demand for the safe haven appeal of dollars and yen, the bigger victims today being the commodity currencies,” said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Source: Reuters
Statistics Canada reported that wholesale prices rose for the fourth straight month in Canada rising 1.2 percent to $45.7 billion. The largest increase came in the machinery, equipment and supplies subsector, where sales rose 4.5 per cent to $9.7 billion in November, their highest level since November 2008.
Source: The Canadian Press
US housing starts fell 4.3 percent to an annualized rate of 529,000 in December. This is the lowest level since October 2009 providing further evidence that the economy continues to struggle to gain traction.
“While the economy appears to be gaining momentum, homebuilding remains stuck at low levels,” said Aaron Smith, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. “Home construction will revive slowly,” and “job creation must pick up for the housing outlook to improve.”
Source: Bloomberg
A television station in Hong Kong claims to have received leaked documents from Chinese officials indicating that China’s inflation for the year ending in December slowed from 5.1 percent in November to 4.6 percent. The station also reported that China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 10.3 percent for the year.
Source: BBC News
The Australian dollar fell against most of the major currencies on news that both retail sales and imports into Australia declined last month. The Australian dollar fell 0.4 percent to 96.41 U.S. cents as of 4:32 p.m. in Sydney from the close in New York. It reached 95.37 cents yesterday, the lowest since Sept. 24, before rallying 1 percent, the sharpest gain since Nov. 18.
Source: Bloomberg
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