Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was trading near six-month highs against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, after the release of mixed U.S. economic reports as expectations for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner than expected continued to support the greenback.
USD/CAD hit 1.1127 during early U.S. trade, the pair's highest since March; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.1109, climbing 0.48%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.1049, Wednesday's low and resistance at 1.1278.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending September 20 increased by 12,000 to 293,000, from the previous week's revised total of 281,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 19,000 to 300,000 last week.
Separately, official data showed that U.S. durable goods orders dropped by 18.2% in August, after an increase of 22.5% in July, whose figure was revised down from a previously estimated gain of 22.6%. Analysts had expected durable goods orders to decline by 18.0% last month.
Core durable goods orders, which exclude transportation items, rose 0.7% last month, in line with expectations, after a 0.5% fall in July, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 0.7% drop.
The greenback strengthened earlier after Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher said the U.S. central bank may start raising interest rates around the spring of 2015.
The loonie was steady against the euro, with EUR/CAD easing 0.02% to 1.4130.
The euro was hit after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi reiterated on Thursday the bank's commitment to act with more policy measures to boost inflation in the euro zone.
"We stand ready to use additional unconventional instruments within our mandate, and alter the size or composition of our unconventional interventions should it become necessary to further address risks of a too prolonged period of low inflation," Draghi said.
On Wednesday, Mario Draghi had already vowed to keep monetary policy "accommodative" for as long as needed, and to use every tool at the ECB's disposal to fight deflation.