USD Index Rises Amid Global Tech Outage; Pound Weakens on Poor UK Retail Sales

Today's expected range for the Canadian Dollar against the major currencies:

US Dollar        1.3675-1.3775

Euro                 1.4900-1.5000

Sterling            1.7700-1.7800

WTI Oil (opening level) $80.76

The US Dollar index is marginally higher and stocks are pointing lower as the market assess the damage from a global tech outage caused by an update from Cybertech firm CrowdStrike. Airlines, Banking and the London Stock Exchange have all shut down in response to this outage and some firms continue to suffer here in North America this morning despite reports that Microsoft has fixed the issue.

In overnight currency news the Pound is a little weaker as the UK economy reported weaker than expected Retail Sales in June. Both the US Dollar and Canadian Dollar were able to make small gains on the weaker Pound.

The Canadian Dollar continues to range trade but USD.CAD continues to move slowly higher and looks at the moment with the stronger US Dollar that it wants to break out to the top-side. On the calendar we get the May Retail Sales report and it is expected to show a drop which may help to move the Loonie lower.

.