- The USD remains depressed on the back of a less hawkish FOMC statement.
- Dovish shift by BoC, the recent fall in Oil prices undermined the Loonie.
- Friday’s key focus will remain on the closely watched US monthly jobs report.
The USD/CAD pair extended its sideways consolidative price action on Friday and is currently placed at the lower end of a two-day-old trading range, around mid-1.3100s.
Following a sharp intraday upsurge and a subsequent rejection near 100-day SMA on Wednesday, the pair now seems to have stabilized and has been oscillating in a 25-30 pips narrow trading band over the past 24-hours or so. A combination of diverging forces failed to provide any meaningful impetus and led to a subdued/range-bound price action on Friday.
Subdued USD/Oil price action failed to inspire traders
The US Dollar remained depressed on the back of less hawkish FOMC decision on Wednesday and failed to gain any respite from a modest uptick in the US Treasury bond yields. On the other hand, the commodity-linked currency – Loonie was also weighed down by a slightly dovish tilt by the Bank of Canada and the overnight sharp drop in Crude Oil prices.
Moreover, investors also seemed reluctant to place any aggressive bets heading into Friday's important release of the US monthly jobs report, popularly known as NFP. This will be followed by the release of US ISM manufacturing PMI, which should provide the required momentum and help investors grab some short-term/meaningful trading opportunities.
Technical levels to watch
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