“¢ Regains positive traction amid some renewed USD buying interest.
“¢ Bulls seemed unaffected by the prevalent bullish move in oil prices.
“¢ Traders now eye second-tier economic releases for some impetus.
After yesterday’s late pull-back from three-week tops, the USD/CAD pair caught some fresh bids on Friday and was now seen making a fresh attempted to build on its momentum beyond the 1.3300 handle.
The pair did get a strong boost and rallied to an intraday high level of 1.3340 on Thursday following the release of disappointing Canadian manufacturing sales data. However, shockingly poor US monthly retail sales data for December triggered a broad-based US Dollar weakness and prompted some long-unwinding trade later in the day.
With investors looking past overnight dismal data, the greenback regained some positive traction and helped regain positive traction on the last trading day of the week. The uptick seemed rather unaffected by the prevailing bullish sentiment surrounding the oil market, which tends to underpin demand for the commodity-linked currency – Loonie.
In fact, WTI crude oil prices remained within striking distance of 2019 highs, supported by OPEC-led supply cuts and a partial shutdown of Saudi Arabia’s biggest offshore oil field, and might turn out to be only factor keeping a lid on any runaway rally, at least for the time being and amid absent major market-moving economic releases.
Today’s US economic docket features some second-tier releases of Empire State Manufacturing Index, industrial production data and Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment, which might be looked upon for some short-term trading impetus later during the early North-American session.
Technical levels to watch
Any subsequent up-move might continue to confront some fresh supply near mid-1.3300s, above which the pair is likely to aim towards surpassing the 1.3400 handle before eventually darting to test the 1.3430-35 supply zone. On the flip side, the 1.3270 level now seems to act as immediate support, which if broken might drag the pair further towards 100-day SMA support near the 1.3240-35 region en-route the 1.3200 round figure mark.
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