Forex: USD/CAD down on Canadian housing updates

_iNVEZZ.com Tuesday July 9th:_ Earlier European trading today saw the USD/CAD at 1.0567 but following release of the Canadian Housing Starts for June, the CAD firmed against the greenback, sending the pair to 1.0523.

The latest report of the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation was released at 13:15 BST today, revealing that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts fell in June to 199,600 units, as against May’s 204,600, ( revised up from a previously reported 200,200). The June reading was considerably better than analysts’ expectations for 187,500 starts.

South of the border, the US NFIB Business Optimism Index for June, released earlier today, dropped 0.9 points to 93.5 after two consecutive months of gains.
According to the accompanying report, the biggest business problems for small-business owners were taxes, regulations and red tape, with 20 percent citing these factors. Another 18 percent cited weak sales as their main problem but only two percent reported that financing was a major concern.
NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg observed: “Economic growth was revised down for the first quarter of the year and the outlook for the second quarter is not looking good. Until growth returns to the small-business half of the economy, it will be hard to generate meaningful economic growth and job creation.”