USD/CAD struggles near weekly lows, below 1.3300 mark amid rising Oil prices

• The prevalent USD selling bias kept exerting some downward pressure.
• Rallying oil prices underpinned the Loonie and added to the selling bias.
• Investors now eye Canadian employment details for a fresh impetus.

The USD/CAD pair remained depressed for the second consecutive session on Friday and refreshed 1-1/2 week lows, around the 1.3270-65 region in the last hour.
 
The pair witnessed some follow-through selling on the last trading day of the week and was seen extending the previous session’s rejection slide from the 1.3345-50 supply zone. The prevalent US Dollar selling bias kept the bulls on the defensive and the selling pressure aggravated further in the wake of a goodish intraday pickup in Crude Oil prices, which tend to underpin demand for the commodity-linked currency – Loonie.

Weighed down by weaker USD/surging oil prices

Despite the incoming positive trade-related headlines, the Greenback struggled to gain any meaningful traction and continues to be weighed down by expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates further at its upcoming meeting on October 29-30. Thursday’s softer US consumer inflation figure further reinforced market expectations and kept exerting some downward pressure on the buck.
 
Meanwhile, Crude Oil prices rallied nearly 2% after the Islamic Republic News Agency reported an explosion on an Iranian tanker that set the NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company)-owned vessel on fire near the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah. Experts said that it may be a terrorist attack and reignited fears a further escalation of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, threatening global supply.
 
Apart from the USD/Oil price dynamics, market participants on Friday will further take cues from Canadian monthly employment details. This will be followed by the release of Prelim UoM consumer sentiment index from the US and might further contribute towards producing some short-term trading opportunities later during the early North-American session.

Technical levels to watch