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The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart on Friday as domestic data showed a drop in underlying retail sales in July, with the loonie on track to end lower for the second straight week.

Canadian retail sales in July rose by 0.6 per cent, Statistics Canada said, adding that August sales probably gained 1.1 per cent on the month. Core retail sales, which exclude sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers and gasoline stations, declined 1.2 per cent in July.

Separate data from Statistics Canada showed that wholesale trade increased by 4.3 per cent in July from June, stronger than the 2 per cent gain that analysts had forecast, to surpass pre-COVID-19 levels.

The Canadian dollar was trading 0.2 per cent lower at 1.3187 to the greenback, or 75.83 U.S. cents, having traded in a range of 1.3137 to 1.3197. For the week, the loonie was down 0.1 per cent.

A recent surge in COVID-19 cases is forcing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to scale back his plan to outline an ambitious green economic recovery package next week.

U.S. crude prices were up 0.4 per cent at $41.12 a barrel on Friday, adding to this week’s advance despite Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar saying that a blockade on Libyan oil exports, which has been in place since January, would be lifted. Oil is one of Canada’s major exports.

The Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, which measures changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, showed prices were up 0.6 per cent in August from July, with the pace of the advance just shy of the average gain for the month as the housing market showed signs of picking up.

Canadian government bond yields were lower across the curve, with the 10-year down 1.5 basis points at 0.558 per cent.

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Tickers mentioned in this story

Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 29/03/24 5:12am EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
CADUSD-FX
Canadian Dollar/U.S. Dollar
-0.08%0.73794

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