“¢ The USD/CAD pair extended its sideways consolidative price action and remained well below mid-1.3400s, or 100-hour SMA through the early North-American session.
“¢ A combination of diverging forces failed to provide any meaningful impetus to the pair and led to a subdued/range-bound price action on the first day of a new trading week.
The US Dollar held on the defensive amid a mildly softer tone surrounding the US Treasury bond yields, while an intraday pullback in Oil prices also did little to provide any boost to the commodity-linked currency – Loonie.
Given Friday’s failure to sustain above the key 1.3500 psychological mark, the pair’s inability to move above 100-hour SMA pivotal point reinforces the recent broader trading range – held over the past four weeks or so.
Technical indicators on hourly charts have been gaining some negative traction and support prospects for a further intraday decline, albeit neutral oscillators on the daily chart warrant caution for aggressive intraday traders.
Hence, it would be prudent to wait for a convincing break through the near-term trading range – between the 1.3380-1.3520 region, before traders start positioning for the pair’s next leg of a near-term directional move.
USD/CAD 1-hourly chart