USD/CAD drops to weekly lows below 1.3350 as WTI advances to March highs

• WTI gains more than 1% for the third straight day.
• US Dollar Index stays below 97 after mixed macroeconomic data releases from the U.S.

The USD/CAD pair came under modest selling pressure in the last hour and touched its lowest level in a week at 1.3335. As of writing, the pair was trading at 1.3340, losing 0.1%  on the day.

Today’s data from the United States showed that durable goods orders increased by 0.4% in January to beat the market expectation of -0.5% by a wide margin. Moreover, December’s reading also got revised up to 1.3% from 1.2%. On the other hand, the Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.1% on a monthly basis to fall short of the analysts’ estimate of 0.2% and dragged the annual rate down  to 1.9% from 2% as expected. Following the mixed data releases, the US Dollar Index stayed in the lower half of its daily range and was last down 0.15% on the day at 96.85.

On the other hand, ahead of the weekly EIA oil market report, which is expected to report a build of 2.65 million barrel in crude oil stocks in the U.S., the barrel of West Texas Intermediate climbed to its highest level since March 1 at $57.76 and was last seen  trading at $57.66, adding 1.05% on a daily basis and supporting the commodity-sensitive loonie.

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