Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was almost unchanged against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, as upbeat U.S. data lent support to the greenback, while markets were still digesting news of a production freeze deal between major oil producers.
USD/CAD hit 1.3049, the pair’s lowest since September 23 before consolidating at 1.3065, down 0.11% for the day.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3025, the low of September 23 and resistance at 1.3180, the high of September 23.
Official data showed that the third estimate of U.S. second quarter gross domestic product showed growth of 1.4%, revised from the previous reading of a 1.1% expansion. Analysts had expected a growth rate of 1.3%.
Separately, the U.S. Department of Labor said initial jobless claims in the week ending September 24 increased by 3,000 to 254,000 from the previous week’s total of 251,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 9,000 to 260,000 last week.
The data came a day after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told Congress that the central bank does not have a "fixed timetable" for modifying its monetary policy.
However, Yellen added that continued job creation at its current pace would cause the economy to overheat and, in that case, the Fed could be forced to raise rates faster than expected.
Meanwhile, the commodity-related Canadian dollar also found support after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said late Wednesday that it agreed to reduce output to a range of 32.5-33.0 million barrels per day, a reduction of 0.7-2.2% from OPEC estimates of its current output at 33.24 million bpd.
It was the first such deal since 2008.
However, the enthousiasm sparked by the deal was short-lived due to skepticism among analysts regarding the limited details of the agreement.
The loonie was higher against the euro, with EUR/CAD down 0.18% at 1.4643.
In the euro zone, official data on Thursday showed that the number of unemployed people in Germany rose by 1,000 this month, disappointing expectations for a 5,000 drop.
On a more positive note, another report showed that Germany’s consumer price index edged up 0.1$ in September, beating expectations for a flat reading.