As the US dollar pulled back on Thursday after its recent rebound from multi-year lows, the Canadian dollar experienced heightened volatility after Canadian retail sales data for December came out on Thursday morning much worse than expected. The headline retail sales number showed a surprising drop of -0.8% versus expectations of 0.0%, and after the previous month’s +0.3% growth. Even more unexpected was the core retail sales data (excluding automobiles), which showed a sharp drop of -1.8% against expectations of +0.1%, and after the previous month’s +1.7% growth. As a result of these disappointments, the Canadian ... (full story)