Canada: Manufacturing Sales declined by 9.2% in March vs. -5.7% expected

• Manufacturing Sales in Canada dropped more than expected in March.
• USD/CAD gained traction and broke above 1.4100 after the data.

Manufacturing Sales in Canada fell by 9.2% to $50.8 billion in March, the data published by Statistics Canada showed on Thursday. This reading followed a 0.5% increase in February and came in worse than the market expectation for a decline of 5.7%.

Additional takeaways

"Manufacturing sales in March were substantially affected by COVID-19 as many plants were shut down or faced sharply lower demand during the last two weeks of the month."

"Given ongoing lower demand, together with continued challenges to global supply chains and ongoing physical distancing measures, the March decline in sales is expected to continue into April."

"In volumes terms, manufacturing sales fell 8.3%, indicating that a lower volume of products was sold in March."

Market reaction

The USD/CAD shot higher after this data and was last seen trading at 1.4115, where it was up 0.12% on the day.