FX Action: USD-CAD was weighed by Asian sovereign sales FX Action: USD-CAD was weighed by Asian sovereign sales. The pair crashed from 1.0225 in early Europe to the 1.0185 region after short term sell stops were triggered through 1.0190. USD-CAD received a small bid in the Asia afternoon from 1.0195 up to 1.0225 amid news that Sobey's will acquire Safeway's assets in Canada for $5.7 B. Canadian conglomerate Empire is the owner of U.S. Safeway and the deal will extend its reach in the western provinces. The deal will be subject to review by the Canadian Competition Burea later this year, but substantial dollar inflows could go back to the U.S. The USD-CAD downside should slow from here amid a plethora of bids in the 1.0170s and towards 1.0150, which held on Wednesday.
U.S. Retail Sales Preview U.S. Retail Sales Preview: May retail sales will be out on Thursday and analysts expect the headline to increase by 0.4% (median 0.4%) with the ex-autos aggregate growing by 0.3% (median 0.3%) following a 0.1% increase for the headline in April. Chain store sales for May should be supportive of retail sales as should the increase in auto sales which analysts discuss in our Monday commentary.