The Canadian GDP data has just been released to the markets. It came in at 0.2%, which was a tad better than the market expectation of 0.1%, and also matched the previous figure of 0.2%. The USDCAD fell nearly 60 pips immediately the news was released. However, it is not known for how long the outcome would impact the USDCAD, as the monthly US Personal Spending data also hit the markets at the same time. The outcome was a 0.6% figure, which beat the market expectation of 0.5% and also bettered the previous figure of 0.3%.
However, the deviation between the latest figure and the consensus figure for the US data was a mere 0.1%, which is 0.2% less than the deviation between the previous figure and the market forecast. In contrast, the deviation for the consensus figure and the previous figure for the Canadian GDP matched the deviation between the consensus and actual figure. This perhaps explains why the response of the market to the data was tilted towards the CAD-positive data rather than the USD-positive data, sending the USDCAD downwards.
As the rigs count data is still expected later in the day, traders need to watch the CAD pairs, as this data could swing oil prices and consequently the Canadian Dollar pairings before the markets shut down for the weekend.