Canadian retail sales in focus this afternoon-check out the USD/CAD

The Canadian dollar has managed to gain since this time yesterday. The attempt to regain levels near the most recent highs in the USD/CAD, at 1.3585 have blown out again it seems. The USD/CAD failed to get beyond 1.3550 yesterday and later closed in the US at 1.3506. It has fallen back below 1.3450 today, as the US dollar more generally comes under the hammer, except versus the Yen. At 1.30pm GMT we will get data from Canada that might add to that move, or help launch another attempt back above the 1.35 handle. I should point out that this is latent data though, as it covers retail sales in December. Those sales are expected to show a quite significant improvement on the negative numbers seen in November. It remains to be seen what exactly will emerge and whether or not the Canadian dollar reacts positively to any improvement. The USD/CAD range seen so far today has been covered by 1.3441 to 1.3507. The USD/CAD is currently trading at 1.3452