USD / CAD is struggling to make a decisive move in either direction on Thursday. The US Dollar Index remains on track to close in the red. WTI is down about 1% on the day despite the big drop in US crude oil stocks.
USD / CAD fell to a daily low of 1.2660 during the first trading hours of the US session, but had no difficulty organizing a rally with falling crude prices hurting the commodity-sensitive Canadian dollar. At time of writing, the pair was virtually unchanged on the day at 1.2703.
Falling oil prices and weak data weigh on CAD
Earlier in the day, the selling pressure surrounding the dollar forced the USD / CAD to remain in negative territory. After climbing above 91.00 on Wednesday, the US Dollar Index fell to a daily low of 90.55 on Thursday. Although the poor performance of the major Wall Street indices helped the dollar find some demand, it is still on track to close in negative territory and was last seen shedding 0.32% to 90.65.
On the other hand, the fall in crude prices does not allow the USD / CAD to capitalize on the weakness of the USD. A barrel of West Texas Intermediate is currently shedding 1.5% on the day at $ 60.80. Data released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday showed that crude oil stocks in the US declined by 7.2 million barrels last week, but this report did not provide a boost to the WTI.
Additionally, ADP’s employment change in Canada stood at -231,200 in January and fell short of the market expectation of -14,100 by a wide margin to keep potential CAD earnings limited.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Labor reported that weekly Initial Unemployment Claims rose to 861,000 and were worse than market expectations of 765,000. However, the market reaction to this data was largely silent.
Technical levels
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