Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was little changed against the Canadian dollar on Thursday after data showed that the number of Americans filing claims for initial jobless benefits rose more than expected last week and oil prices fell to fresh four year lows.
USD/CAD was trading at 1.1315, almost flat for the day, remaining below the more than five year peaks of 1.1465 struck last week.
The Labor Department reported that the number of people filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending November 8 increased by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 290,000 from the previous week’s total of 278,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 4,000.
Jobless claims still remained close to a 14-year low, indicating that the recovery in the labor markets remains on track.
The US dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, ticked down to session lows of 87.70 following the release of the data.
Meanwhile, Brent oil prices fell below $80 a barrel for the first time since September 2010 on Thursday as the broadly stronger greenback and concerns over ample supplies and slowing global demand weighed.
Crude oil is Canada’s largest export and the Canadian dollar is sensitive to fluctuations in oil prices.
The U.S. was to release a report on oil stockpiles later in the session.
Elsewhere, the loonie, as the Canadian dollar is also known was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD easing up 0.18% to 1.4106.