USD/CAD slips to session low, Canadian retail sales eyed for fresh impetus

   •  A subdued USD demand fails to assist build on the overnight up-move.
   •  Bullish oil prices underpin Loonie and further collaborate towards capping.
   •  Traders now eye Canadian retail sales/Fedspeaks for some fresh impetus.

The USD/CAD pair struggled to build on the overnight goodish up-move and traded with a mild negative bias on the last trading day of the week. 

A combination of factors assisted the pair to catch some aggressive bids on Thursday and extend the previous session's post-FOMC minutes rebound from the very important 200-day SMA and snap four consecutive days of losing streak. 

The BoC Governor Stephen Poloz sounded cautious in his latest remarks on Thursday, saying that the limitations of monetary policy mean that it cannot solve all economic problems, and exerted some downward pressure on the Canadian Dollar. 

This coupled with a modest pullback in crude oil prices, following the release of the weekly EIA report that showed a larger than expected buildup in US inventories, further undermined demand for the commodity-linked currency - Loonie and provided an additional boost. 

With oil prices regaining some positive traction on Friday, a subdued US Dollar price action, primarily on the back of a weaker tone around the US Treasury bond yields, kept a lid on any strong follow-through, rather prompted some selling at higher levels.

The downside, however, is likely to remain limited as market participants now look forward to the release of Canadian monthly retail sales data, which coupled with speeches by influential FOMC members, might produce some meaningful trading opportunities during the North-American session.

Technical levels to watch