EUR/CAD ticks up to near 1.6160 ahead of ECB speeches

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EUR/CAD edges up to near 1.6160 as the Euro trades higher.
The ECB held interest rates steady on Thursday and reiterated a data-dependent approach.
Investors expect Canadian monthly Retail Sales to have remained flat in October.

The EUR/CAD pair edges higher to near 1.6160 during the early European trading session on Friday. The cross ticks up as the Euro (EUR) outperforms its major peers ahead of speeches from a slew of European Central Bank (ECB) policymakers later in the day. Investors will pay close attention to comments from ECB officials to get fresh cues on the interest rate outlook.

Euro Price Today

The table below shows the percentage change of Euro (EUR) against listed major currencies today. Euro was the strongest against the Japanese Yen.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		0.02%	0.02%	0.25%	0.06%	0.09%	0.21%	0.11%
EUR	-0.02%		0.00%	0.24%	0.04%	0.07%	0.19%	0.09%
GBP	-0.02%	0.00%		0.25%	0.06%	0.06%	0.19%	0.09%
JPY	-0.25%	-0.24%	-0.25%		-0.18%	-0.17%	-0.06%	-0.15%
CAD	-0.06%	-0.04%	-0.06%	0.18%		0.01%	0.13%	0.04%
AUD	-0.09%	-0.07%	-0.06%	0.17%	-0.01%		0.12%	0.02%
NZD	-0.21%	-0.19%	-0.19%	0.06%	-0.13%	-0.12%		-0.10%
CHF	-0.11%	-0.09%	-0.09%	0.15%	-0.04%	-0.02%	0.10%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Euro from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent EUR (base)/USD (quote).

On Thursday, the ECB left its Deposit Facility Rate steady at 2%, as expected, and didn’t provide a clear monetary policy outlook, citing uncertainty over inflation. The ECB refrained from committing to a pre-defined monetary policy path, and reiterated that it will follow a “data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach”.

The ECB has raised Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projections for the current year and 2026 to 1.4% and 1.2% on hopes of upbeat investment plans. In the press conference, ECB President Christine Lagarde said, “Government expenditure on infrastructure and defense should underpin investment."

Meanwhile, the Canadian Dollar (CAD) takes a breather after a strong upside move in the past few trading days. The CAD traded higher amid expectations that the Bank of Canada (BoC) is unlikely to cut interest rates in the near term as inflation remains close to the 2% target, with signs of an improvement in labor market conditions.

In the monetary policy announcement last week, the BoC stated that the “economic slack would roughly offset cost pressures linked to trade reconfiguration”, after leaving interest rates steady at 2.25%.

In Friday’s session, investors will focus on Canadian Retail Sales data for October, which will be published at 13:30 GMT. Month-on-month Retail Sales are expected to have remained flat after declining by 0.7% in September.

Economic Indicator

Retail Sales (MoM)

The Retail Sales data, released by Statistics Canada on a monthly basis, measures the total value of goods sold by retailers in Canada based on a sampling of retail stores of different types and sizes. Changes in Retail Sales are widely followed as an indicator of consumer spending. Percent changes reflect the rate of changes in such sales, with the MoM reading comparing sales values in the reference month with the previous month. Generally, a high reading is seen as bullish for the Canadian Dollar (CAD), while a low reading is seen as bearish.