Canada’s manufacturing sales likely to have dropped in August

Canada’s manufacturing sales data for the month of August is set to be released tomorrow. According to a TD Economics research report, manufacturing sales are expected to have dropped 0.8 percent in August, although softness seems to be greatly concentrated in the transportation sector.

In August, motor vehicle exports had dropped 6.2 percent, alongside a fall of 7.7 percent in aerospace products. While the latter is subject to increased volatility and should therefore be taken with a pinch of salt, the former fits with a recorded fall in auto production which might be a huge drag on manufacturing shipments.

“While the ex-transport number will look less bleak, a 5 percent gain in nondurable shipments over the last three months will limit the scope of any offsets. Real manufacturing sales should come in above the headline print owing to lower factory prices, which will dampen the impact on industry-level GDP”, added TD Economics.

At 13:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Canadian Dollar was neutral at 24.2347, while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was slightly bearish at -57.7375. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex