The USD/CAD pair jumped 50 pips in a matter of minutes and broke above the 1.27 mark after the data from Canada failed to meet market estimates. At the moment, the pair is trading at 1.1.2717, adding 0.17% on the day. The pair's unusually strong reaction to the data seems to be a product of the low trading volume on Thursday.
According to the data released by the Statistics Canada, retail sales increased by 0.1% to $49.1 billion on a monthly basis in September and came in below experts' estimate of 0.9%. Moreover, August data revised down to -0.1%. In the meantime, following yesterday's impressive rally, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate continued to edge higher today amid heightened expectations of the OPEC/non-OPEC output cut deal getting extended in next week's meeting in Vienna. At the moment, the barrel of WTI is trading at its highest level since June 2015 at $58.20, helping the commodity-sensitive loonie show some resilience against the buck. Oil prices are likely to stay as the sole driver of the price action with American investors enjoying their holiday.