The Canadian dollar was moderately lower again on Friday against the US dollar. The Canadian dollar is currently trading at 1.3548, its lowest level since April 10th. The Canadian dollar has lost about 1.2 percent versus the US dollar this week (at the time of writing).
The Canadian dollar weakened primarily as a result of slowing Canadian retail sales numbers, which declined for a second straight month. The decline in retail sales is expected to accelerate even more next month. The dip in oil prices over the past week, with Brent Crude prices slipping by over 5% since Monday, has also contributed to the weakening of the Canadian dollar versus the US dollar this week.
Overall, however, the broad market sentiment continues to point to more US dollar weakness against the Canadian dollar. This bearish (negative) outlook for the US dollar is primarily being driven by the potential peak in US interest rates and, more recently, worries about the US debt ceiling.