Canadian Wholesale Sales (JUL)
Actual: 2.0%
Expected: 0.5%
Previous: 0.1% (R-)
Sales activity at the wholesale level grew four times faster in July than the market consensus had projected. A 2.0 percent jump in reciepts to C$44.1 billion was a reflection of strong demand across most of the major product groups. Leading the way was a 6.2 percent surge in auto sales to C$6.73 billion. Contributing considerable pushes in their own right were increases in personal goods, building materials and machinery and electrical equipment which rose 4.0 percent, 1.3 percent and 2.8 percent respectively. The rising demand for machinery came through the strong value of the Canadian dollar which stoked import demand from domestic firms. Perhaps the greatest worth of this data was its forecasting ability for the later released retail sales report. Though the correlation is not perfect, large changes in the wholesales report are often reflected as large changes in the retail group.
In the minutes after the release, USDCAD dropped to within two points from parity on a momentous 90 point drop.