Forexpros - The U.S. dollar was trading in a narrow range against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, as the release of a flurry of U.S. data reinforced the view that the U.S. economic recovery is gaining traction.
USD/CAD hit 0.9949 during early U.S. trade, the pair’s highest since March 8; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9936, easing up 0.11%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9881, Wednesday’s low and resistance at 0.9989, the high of March 8.
Earlier Thursday, the Department of Labor said number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell back to a four-year low of 351,000, beating expectations for a decline to 356,000.
Separate reports showed that manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region expanded at a faster than forecast rate in March, rising to the highest level in 11 months, while manufacturing activity in New York improved unexpectedly, climbing to the highest level since June 2010.
Elsewhere, official data showed that U.S. producer price inflation rose slightly less-than-expected in February, increasing by a seasonally adjusted 0.4%, below expectations for a 0.5% gain, while core producer prices rose 0.2% last month, in line with expectations.
The data underlined the view that the U.S. economic recovery is gathering momentum, after the Federal Reserve upgraded its outlook on the economy earlier this week, causing investors to trim back expectations for a third round of quantitative easing.
The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is also known, was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD rising 0.26% to hit 1.2969.
Also Thursday, crude oil prices were ticking up and down between small gains and losses, with crude oil contracts for delivery in April dipping 0.03% on the New York Mercantile Exchange, to trade at USD105.39 a barrel.
