The USD/CAD was mostly flat as the strong U.S. economic data was cancelled by the surge in oil prices. The pair is trading at 1.3304 and is trading in a tight range ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the States.
The U.S. jobless claims posted today instead of Thursday to account for the holiday came in lower at 260,000. Durable good orders in America beat expectations with non-military capital goods rising 1.3 percent in October. The data is signalling a strong close to the fourth quarter in the United States ahead of the December 16 Federal Reserve interest rate hike decision.
European Central Bank (ECB) comments earlier this morning gave the USD a boost as the central bank is ready to add to its quantitive easing program and could introduce a two tier deposit rate. The ECB also announced that it will pause its QE program during the Christmas to year end holidays.
This short week was going to be tricky for CAD traders as there is almost no Canadian economic releases. Next week becomes more relevant with the Bank of Canada issuing its monetary policy statement on Wednesday, December 2 and the U.S. publishing the non-farm payrolls report on Friday, December 4.
Oil Caught Between Middle East and Oversupply
Oil recorded another volatile trading session with a 3.4 percent swing from high to low on Wednesday. In the past 24 hours the price of crude has eased somewhat but continues to be one of the most volatile assets due to the turmoil in the Middle East. West Texas crude is trading at $41.81. Complicating matters there were reports of Iran’s production getting ready to ramp up in 2016 in a world already awash in the black stuff. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will meet on Friday, December 4 and a growing number of members are angry at Saudi Arabia for not cutting overall production to try and contain the fall in energy prices.
CAD events to watch this week:
Friday, November, 27
8:30 am CAD RMPI m/m
*All times EST
For a complete list of scheduled events in the forex market visit the MarketPulse Economic Calendar
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Alfonso Esparza
trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
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