USD/CAD in search of a firm direction, stuck in a range below 1.3300 handle
- A softer tone surrounding the USD failed to provide any fresh impetus on Thursday.
- A sudden pickup in Oil prices underpinned Loonie and collaborated towards capping.
The USD/CAD pair lacked any firm directional bias and seesawed between tepid gains/minor losses through the early European trading session on Thursday.
The pair continued with its struggle to sustain/build on its recent bullish momentum further beyond the very important 200-day SMA barrier near the 1.3305-10 region and was now seen oscillating in a narrow trading band, consolidating the recent up-move to two-week tops.
Wednesday's softer Canadian consumer inflation figures, followed by hawkish FOMC monetary policy statement did provide a goodish intraday lift but again failed to provide the required momentum or assist the pair to make it through the mentioned strong hurdle.
Bulls struggling to make it through 200-DMA
Meanwhile, Thursday's subdued price action could be attributed to a mildly softer tone surrounding the US Dollar. This coupled with a sudden pickup in Crude Oil prices further underpinned the commodity-linked currency - Loonie and collaborated towards capping gains.
The latest tweet by Iran's foreign minister, terming the recent US remarks as "Act of war" or "Agitation for war", resurfaced fears of a further escalation of geopolitical tension in the Middle East and led to the latest leg of a spike in Crude Oil prices over the past hour or so.
It will now be interesting to see if the pair is able to attract any meaningful buying interest or repeated failures near a key resistance marks the end of the recent corrective bounce from levels below mid-1.3100s - touched earlier this September.
Moving ahead, Thursday's US economic docket - featuring the release of usual initial weekly jobless claims and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index - will now be looked upon for some short-term trading opportunities later during the early North-American session.
Technical levels to watch