USD/CAD hangs near 3-week lows, just above 1.3200 handle ahead of key jobs data

• Positive Crude Oil prices underpinned Loonie and exerted some fresh pressure.
• A subdued USD price action fails to impress bulls ahead of Friday’s key releases.
• The US/Canadian jobs report, Powell’s speech to provide a meaningful impetus.

The USD/CAD pair struggled near three-week lows, with bears still awaiting a sustained weakness below the 1.3200 handle and a subsequent break through 50-day SMA support.
 
The pair failed to capitalize on the overnight late rebound and met with some fresh supply on the last trading day of the week amid a modest pickup in Crude Oil prices, which tend to underpin demand for the commodity-linked currency – Loonie.

Bulls show reluctance ahead of key releases

The latest optimism over the resumption of the US-China trade talks continued boosting investors’ appetite for perceived riskier assets. This coupled with a drop in the US inventories remained supportive of a mildly positive tone around Oil prices.
 
Meanwhile, the US Dollar failed to capitalize on the overnight goodish uptick, led by upbeat US ADP report and ISM non-manufacturing PMI, rather held steady on Friday and did little to provide any meaningful impetus to the major.
 
The downside, however, remained cushioned, at least for the time being, as investors now seemed reluctant to place any aggressive bets ahead of Friday’s important releases of monthly jobs report from the US (NFP) and Canada.
 
This will be followed by the Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s scheduled speech later during the US trading session, which might play a key role in influencing the USD price dynamics and provide some meaningful directional impetus to the pair.

Technical levels to watch