USD/CAD climbs to 1-1/2 week tops, bulls looking to build on momentum beyond 1.3300 handle
• A slight deterioration in risk appetite helped revive the USD’s safe-haven status.
• Weaker oil prices further undermined Loonie and provided an additional boost.
• Technical buying above 1.3300 handle to pave way for additional intraday gains.
The USD/CAD pair spiked to 1-1/2 week tops in the last hour, with bulls now looking to build on the momentum further beyond the 1.3300 handle.
A combination of supporting factors helped the pair to catch some aggressive bids on Thursday and finally break out of its two-day-old consolidative trading range.
Softer risk sentiment extended some support to the US Dollar's relative safe-haven status and triggered the initial leg of an up-move from the vicinity of mid-1.3200s.
Adding to this, weaker crude oil prices further dampened demand for the commodity-linked currency - Loonie and remained supportive of the ongoing positive momentum.
The pair was now seen building on last week's goodish rebound from 100-day SMA support, or one-month lows and a follow-through up-move, led by some fresh technical buying, now looks a distinct possibility.
Moving ahead, today's second-tier US economic releases - initial weekly jobless claims and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index, will now be looked upon for some short-term trading opportunities.
Technical levels to watch
Any subsequent up-move is likely to confront some fresh supply near 50-day SMA, around the 1.3335-40 region, above which the momentum could further get extended towards the 1.3400 neighborhood.
On the flip side, the 1.3250-45 region now seems to act as immediate strong support, which if broken might trigger a fresh leg of downfall and accelerate the fall back towards 100-day SMA support near the 1.3180 region.