Canadian manufacturing sales likely to have dropped in November on softer petroleum sales

Canadian manufacturing sales data for the month of November is set to release tomorrow. According to a TD Economics research report, the manufacturing sales are expected to have fallen by 0.4 percent in the month, driven by softer petroleum sales. This reflects a sharp fall in gasoline prices. Auto production estimates were also lower throughout the month, which fits with a fall in imported automotive parts to imply softer factory sales of motor vehicles.

Nevertheless, lower prices for petroleum products are likely to have been partly countered by a return to normal operations at the Irving Refinery in St. Johns; maintenance shutdowns caused New Brunswick’s non-durable output to drop 13 percent sequentially in October, subtracting 0.2 percentage points from total manufacturing sales.

“Despite our forecast for a negative headline print, real manufacturing sales should post a modest increase in November owing to a 0.8 percent decline in factory prices (ex petrol: +0.2 percent) which suggests a slight tailwind to industry-level GDP from the manufacturing sector”, added TD Economics.

At 14:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Canadian Dollar was neutral at 26.1133, while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was highly bullish at 159.364 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex