Investing.com - The U.S. dollar pared losses against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, after the release of upbeat U.S. data, although caution ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech on Friday limited the greenback’s gains.
USD/CAD eased off 1.2899, the session low, to hit 1.2927 during early U.S. trade, steady for the day.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2854, Tuesday’s low and resistance at 1.2997, the high of August 12.
The Commerce Department said durable goods orders rose by 4.4% last month, compared to expectations for an advance of 3.3%.
June’s orders were revised down to show a decrease of 4.2% from a previously reported 3.9% decline.
Core durable goods orders, which exclude volatile transportation items, rose 1.5% last month, compared to forecasts for a 0.5% gain.
At the same time, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending August 20 decreased by 1,000 to a five-week low of 261,000 from the previous week’s total of 262,000.
Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 3,000 to 265,000 last week.
But the greenback remained under pressure as market participants were waiting to see if Yellen will restate the hawkish view of the economy expressed by Fed officials last week or echo the minutes of the Fed’s July meeting, which indicated that officials are divided on when to raise rates.
Meanwhile, sentiment on the commodity-related Canadian dollar was fragile as oil prices fell to one-week lows after data on Wednesday showed that U.S. stockpiles rose unexpectedly last week.
The loonie was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD rising 0.29% to 1.4600.