A round of negative global risk sentiment sunk the Loonie for the week, making it one of the biggest losers of the week, despite a recovery in oil prices.
Canadian Headlines and Economic data
No major catalysts from Canada for the first half of the week, so it’s likely the mixed performance (lower against AUD & NZD / higher against the lower yielders) was due to global risk sentiment.
We saw a positive lean in risk sentiment at the beginning of the week as more countries were looking at re-opening their economies.
Oil prices turn higher on the Tuesday session on hopes demand would recover as economies opened back up.
Wednesday:
Foreign investment in Canadian securities was $20.6B in February 2020
Thursday:
Canadian monthly GDP 0.0% in February 2020
The Loonie turns lower during the U.S. session, likely on rising negative risk sentiment starting in the London session on negative economic updates from Europe (GDP down by 3.8% in the euro area and by 3.5% in the EU), negative outlook from the ECB monetary policy statement, and possibly on some negative commentary from two of the largest companies in the world (Amazon and Apple) taking down U.S. equities.
Friday:
Rapid Canadian manufacturing downturn amid COVID-19 pandemic in April to 33 vs. 45.1 March
Tiff Macklem named new Bank of Canada governor amid COVID-19 pandemic
Along with the weak Canadian manufacturing update, CAD likely fell broadly during the Friday session on negative global risk sentiment, likely on boosted headlines that the U.S. is looking to take action against China like new tariffs.