USD/CAD clings to small gains above 1.34 mark
- Crude oil extends slide for the second straight day.
- US Dollar Index clings to gains above 97.
- Coming up on Friday: January GDP report from Canada.
The USD/CAD pair fluctuated in the NA session amid the heightened volatility seen in crude oil prices and dropped to 1.34 area before rebounding into the positive territory. As of writing, the pair was up 0.05% on the day at 1.3417.
The barrel of West Texas Intermediate dropped to a daily low of $58.20 after U.S. President Trump, once again, called upon OPEC to ramp up its output in a tweet that read: "Very important that OPEC increase the flow of Oil. World Markets are fragile, price of Oil getting too high." However, with Reuters reporting that OPEC+ was planning to extend the oil supply cut agreement for three more months allowed the WTI to stage a recovery and helped the commodity-related loonie stay resilient against the dollar. At the moment, the WTI is down 0.6% on the day at $59.
On the other hand, a moderate rebound seen in the Treasury bond yields and today's GDP data from the U.S., which showed that the real economy is expected to expand by 1.9% on a quarterly basis in the Q4, helped the US Dollar Index advance to a 20-day high of 97.30 and caused the pair to turn north.
With today's data out of the way, markets will wait for tomorrow's PCE price index data from the U.S. and January GDP report from Canada.
Technical levels to consider