Forexpros – The U.S. dollar trimmed losses against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, following the release of better-than-expected U.S. data on jobless claims and comments by European Central Bank president Mario Draghi.
USD/CAD pulled back from 0.9827, the pair’s lowest since April 30, to hit 0.9856 during early U.S. trade, down just 0.07% on the day.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9803, the low of April 30 and resistance at 0.9903, Wednesday’s high and a six-day high.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending April 28 fell by 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 365,000, beating expectations for a decline to 380,000.
The previous week’s figure was revised up to 392,000 from 388,000.
In the euro zone, ECB chief Mario Draghi said that policymakers did not discuss an interest-rate cut at their monthly meeting earlier, when the bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1%, in a widely expected decision.
Draghi also refrained from pledging more liquidity boosting measures, saying that the bank’s long-term financing operations needed time to work.
The comments came after an auction of Spanish government debt which met with solid investor demand but saw the country’s short-term borrowing costs rise sharply.
The Canadian dollar also came under pressure from broadly lower oil prices, with crude futures for delivery in June down 1.49% on the New York Mercantile Exchange, to trade at USD103.67 a barrel.
Raw materials, including oil account for about half of Canada’s export revenue.
The Canadian dollar was little changed against the euro, with EUR/CAD dipping 0.03% to hit 1.2974.
Later in the day, the Institute of Supply Management was to produce a report on U.S. service sector growth.
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