USD/CAD spikes to 1.3300 handle, over 1-month tops

US-China trade concerns benefitted the USD’s safe-haven status.
Some follow-through weakness in oil prices undermined the loonie.
Bulls eyeing a move beyond 1.3300 handle ahead of FOMC minutes.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

The USD/CAD pair jumped to over one-month tops during the early European session on Wednesday, with bulls now looking to extend the momentum further beyond the 1.3300 handle.

The pair added to the previous session's strong intraday upsurge of nearly 120 pips and continued gaining traction for the second consecutive session on Wednesday. A combination of supporting factors fueled the positive momentum and assisted the pair to finally move past the very important 200-day SMA resistance.

Risk-off mood, weaker oil prices supportive of the positive move

The US President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned of more tariffs if negotiations with China failed and triggered a fresh wave of the global risk-aversion trade. The global flight to safety was seen benefitting the US dollar's perceived safe-haven status against its Canadian counterpart and provided a goodish lift to the major.

Against the backdrop of intensifying US-China trade tensions, a sharp rise in the US inventories led to some follow-through weakness in crude oil prices, which undermined demand for the commodity-linked currency loonie and remained supportive of the pair's ongoing positive momentum to the highest level since October 11.

Adding to this, possibilities of some short-term trading stops being triggered on a sustained move beyond a technically significant moving average (200-DMA) seemed to have further collaborated towards accelerating the momentum through the early European session on Wednesday.

Moving ahead, Wednesday's important release of the latest FOMC monetary policy meeting minutes, due later during the US trading session, will now play a key role in influencing the USD price dynamics and contribute towards producing some meaningful trading opportunities.

Technical levels to watch

USD/CAD

Overview
Today last price	1.3296
Today Daily Change	0.0025
Today Daily Change %	0.19
Today daily open	1.3271

Trends
Daily SMA20	1.3169
Daily SMA50	1.3212
Daily SMA100	1.3203
Daily SMA200	1.3276

Levels
Previous Daily High	1.3274
Previous Daily Low	1.3156
Previous Weekly High	1.3272
Previous Weekly Low	1.3212
Previous Monthly High	1.3349
Previous Monthly Low	1.3042
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1.3228
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1.3201
Daily Pivot Point S1	1.3193
Daily Pivot Point S2	1.3115
Daily Pivot Point S3	1.3075
Daily Pivot Point R1	1.3311
Daily Pivot Point R2	1.3351
Daily Pivot Point R3	1.3429

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

Haresh Menghani is a detail-oriented professional with 10+ years of extensive experience in analysing the global financial markets.

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