USD/CAD climbs above 1.3550 on oil selloff, eyes on BoC policy announcements

USD/CAD gained traction on Wednesday and rose above 1.3550.
Falling crude oil prices on OPEC headline weigh on loonie.
Bank of Canada is expected to keep its policy rate unchanged at 0.25%.

Eren Sengezer FXStreet

The USD/CAD pair stayed relatively quiet near 1.3500 during the Asian trading hours before gaining traction in the last hour. As of writing, the pair was up 0.3% on the day at 1.3557.

Falling crude oil prices seem to be causing the commodity-related loonie to weaken against its major rivals. Pressured by a Bloomberg report suggesting that the OPEC+ meeting was in doubt over disputes on oil-quote cheating, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell sharply on Wednesday. Ahead of the weekly EIA Crude Oil Stocks Change data, the WTI was trading near $36, losing more than 2% on the day.

Focus shifts to US data, BoC meeting

On the other hand, the US Dollar Index erased the majority of its daily losses and provided an additional boost to USD/CAD. Ahead of the ADP's private sector employment report and the ISM's Non-Manufacturing PMI data, the index is down 0.08% on the day at 97.60.

Later in the day, the Bank of Canada, under the leadership of new Governor Tiff Macklem will announce its interest rate decision and publish the monetary policy statement.

BoC: Six major banks expectations for the Interest Rate Decision.

Previewing this event, "the statement should maintain a cautious tone, even if acknowledging that conditions are evolving in line with the Bank's less pessimistic scenario from April, while the forward-looking portion should repeat that the Bank stands ready to adjust its programs if necessary,” said TD Securities analysts.

Technical levels to watch for

USD/CAD

Overview
Today last price	1.3565
Today Daily Change	0.0046
Today Daily Change %	0.34
Today daily open	1.3519

Trends
Daily SMA20	1.3914
Daily SMA50	1.4001
Daily SMA100	1.3729
Daily SMA200	1.3461

Levels
Previous Daily High	1.3586
Previous Daily Low	1.3484
Previous Weekly High	1.4008
Previous Weekly Low	1.3715
Previous Monthly High	1.4173
Previous Monthly Low	1.3715
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1.3523
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1.3547
Daily Pivot Point S1	1.3473
Daily Pivot Point S2	1.3428
Daily Pivot Point S3	1.3372
Daily Pivot Point R1	1.3575
Daily Pivot Point R2	1.3631
Daily Pivot Point R3	1.3676

Author

Eren Sengezer

FXStreet

As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.

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