USD/CAD surrenders intraday gains, back below 1.3600 post-Canadian/US jobs data

USD/CAD meets with some intraday selling in reaction to the stellar Canadian jobs report.
The mixed US NFP data fails to impress the USD bulls or provide any meaningful impetus.
The price-action warrants caution for bullish traders and positioning for additional gains.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

The USD/CAD pair surrenders a major part of its intraday gains and retreats below the 1.2600 mark during the early North American session.

The Canadian Dollar gets a strong boost in reaction to the upbeat domestic employment details, which, in turn, prompts some selling around the USD/CAD pair. Statistics Canada reported that the economy added 104K new jobs in December, beating estimates for a reading of 8K by a huge margin. Adding to this, the unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked down to 5.0% during the reported month from 5.1% recorded in November.

On the other hand, a softer tone around crude oil prices acts as a headwind for the commodity-linked Loonie. This, along with the intraday bullish sentiment surrounding the US Dollar, helps the USD/CAD pair to stick to its modest gains for the second successive day.

The USD bulls, meanwhile, seem rather unimpressed by the upbeat US jobs data, which showed that the economy added 223K new jobs in December as compared to the 200K estimated. Furthermore, the jobless rate edged down to 3.5%, beating estimates for a reading of 3.7%. Softer Average Hourly Earnings data overshadows the upbeat report, which, along with a sharp spike in the US equity futures, acts as a headwind for the safe-haven greenback, warranting some caution before placing aggressive bullish bets around the USD/CAD pair and positioning for an extension of the overnight bounce from the 100-day SMA.

Technical levels to watch

USD/CAD

Overview
Today last price	1.3652
Today Daily Change	0.0071
Today Daily Change %	0.52
Today daily open	1.3581

Trends
Daily SMA20	1.3598
Daily SMA50	1.3525
Daily SMA100	1.3471
Daily SMA200	1.3143

Levels
Previous Daily High	1.3596
Previous Daily Low	1.347
Previous Weekly High	1.3612
Previous Weekly Low	1.3484
Previous Monthly High	1.3705
Previous Monthly Low	1.3385
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1.3548
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1.3518
Daily Pivot Point S1	1.3503
Daily Pivot Point S2	1.3424
Daily Pivot Point S3	1.3378
Daily Pivot Point R1	1.3628
Daily Pivot Point R2	1.3674
Daily Pivot Point R3	1.3753

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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