USD/CAD struggles to find direction, moves sideways near 1.3300

• WTI recovers last week’s losses, gains nearly 2% on Monday.
• Participants ignore mixed durable goods orders data from US.
• US Dollar Index stays firm near 98 handle.  

The USD/CAD pair started the new week a little below the 1.33 handle and has been having a difficult time determining its next short-term direction as the rising crude oil prices help commodity-related Loonie to stay resilient against the Greenback. As of writing, the pair was up 0.24% on the day at 1.3313.

Upbeat sentiment lifts crude oil higher

Easing concerns over a further escalation in the US-China trade conflict after both sides voiced their willingness to continue to negotiations in a calm manner, allowed crude oil to start erasing last week’s losses. The barrel of West Texas Intermediate, which lost 1.7% last week, was last seen trading at $55, adding 2.05% on a daily basis.

On the other hand, the recovering market sentiment provided a boost to the 10-year US Treasury bond yield and assisted the US Dollar Index (DXY) with retracing last week’s losses. At the moment, the DXY is up 0.73% on the day at 97.97.  

Earlier today, the data published by the US Census Bureau showed that new orders for manufactured durable goods rose 2.1% in July to beat the market expectation of 1.1% but, excluding transportation, new orders declined by 0.4% to offset any positive impacts on the currency.

There won’t be any macroeconomic data releases in the remainder of the day and the pair is unlikely to make any sharp moves in either direction unless we get fresh headlines on the US-China trade conflict.

Technical levels to watch for