USD/CAD: Loonie Enters Consolidation Phase Following Two Days of Gains

  • USD/CAD traded at 1.3224 as of 2:40PM BST
  • No major economic event that could impact both currencies but US-China trade headlines continue to move the markets
  • The technical picture of the USD/CAD pair looks neutral at the moment.

The US dollar picked up some support against the Canadian dollar in today’s trade after closing Friday’s session in a bearish tone. As of 2:40 p.m. London time, the US dollar traded at 1.3224 against the loonie.

While today’s economic calendar is light for both currencies, US-China trade headlines continue to move the markets, with a slight risk-off mood noticeable in the morning.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Lighthizer spoke with China’s Vice Premier Liu He by phone over the weekend and had “constructive” discussions on outstanding topics in the phase-one deal, according to the Chinese Commerce Ministry.

Last week, the Trump administration announced that US companies will continue to provide technology to Huawei, while China agreed to remove tariffs and quotas on some US agricultural imports. Nevertheless, there is still no guarantee that a deal will be reached by the end of the year.

Lower oil prices weighed on the Canadian dollar this morning. Markets were pricing in a relatively low chance of 19% that the Bank of Canada will cut rates at their December meeting. The weak labour report last week triggered a significant decrease in bullish bets on the loonie that fell by $902 million, according to the latest CoT report. The total bullish CAD positioning fell to $3.2 billion.

Today’s price-chart shows that buying pressure is building up at the horizontal support level which aligns with the October 30 high of 1.3208. Last week’s high of 1.3270 acts as a short-term resistance, while a break below the 1.32 round number could see the pair retesting the lower 1.31 levels. Overall, the technical picture of the USD/CAD pair looks neutral at the moment.


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