USD/CAD hangs near 3-week lows, US/Canadian jobs data awaited

   “¢   Renewed USD selling fails to provide any immediate respite to the bulls.
   “¢   Stability in oil prices also doing little to influence demand for Loonie.
   “¢   Investors look forward to the US/Canadian jobs report for fresh impetus.

The USD/CAD pair continued with its struggle to register any meaningful recovery and continued with its subdued price-action within a three-day-old trading range.  

Overnight sharp retracement in crude oil prices, led by an unexpected jump in the US inventories, undermined the commodity-linked currency – Loonie and extended some support to the major. However, persistent US Dollar selling bias did little to assist the pair to move away from near three-week lows.

Despite Thursday’s upbeat release of the US ISM non-manufacturing PMI and FOMC meeting minutes, which reinforced prospects for a gradual Fed monetary policy tightening cycle, escalating US-China trade war fears kept the USD bulls on the defensive and might continue to keep a lid on any attempted recovery.  

Moreover, traders also seemed to refrain from placing aggressive bets ahead of today’s important release of monthly jobs report from the US NFP  and Canada, which further collaborated to the range-bound price action through the early European session on Friday.

Technical levels to watch

The 1.3115-10 region might continue to protect the immediate downside, below which the pair is likely to accelerate the fall towards 1.3065-60 intermediate support en-route 50-day SMA support near the key 1.30 psychological mark.

On the flip side, the 1.3155-60 region now seems to have emerged as an immediate hurdle, which if cleared might trigger a short-covering bounce and lift the pair beyond the 1.3200 handle back towards weekly tops near the 1.3225 region.