USD/CAD plummets to lows, around mid-1.3200s post-Canadian CPI

• Hotter-than-expected Canadian CPI exerts some heavy pressure in the last hour.
• Bullish Crude Oil prices add to the selling bias amid a subdued USD price action.
• The downside seems limited ahead of Wednesday’s release of FOMC minutes.

The USD/CAD pair continued losing ground through the early North-American session and tumbled to fresh session lows – around mid-1.3200s – post-Canadian CPI figures.

CAD boosted by bullish Oil prices/hotter CPI

According to the latest report, Canadian headline consumer inflation – as measured by CPI – came in hotter than expected and edged up by 0.5% in July, helping the yearly rate to hold steady at 2.0% as against consensus estimates pointing to a fall to 1.7%.
 
This against the backdrop of the ongoing bullish run in Crude Oil prices provided a strong boost to the commodity-linked currency – Loonie and exerted some heavy downward pressure on the major though mixed readings from the BoC’s core CPI helped limit the downside.
 
Meanwhile, a subdued US Dollar price action – despite a goodish pickup in the US Treasury bond yields – did little to lend any support or stall the sharp intraday slide ahead of the next big event risk – the release of the latest FOMC monetary policy meeting minutes.

Technical levels to watch