Investing.com - The U.S. dollar pared gains against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, after the release of downbeat U.S. jobless claims data and as investors remained cautious ahead of a highly-anticipated vote on Donald Trump’s healthcare plan scheduled later in the day.
USD/CAD pulled away from 1.3356, the session high, to hit – during early U.S. trade, still up 0.08%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3262, the low of March 21 and resistance at 1.3409, Wednesday’s high.
The U.S. Department of Labor said initial jobless claims increased by 15,000 to 258,000 in the week ending March 18 from the previous week’s revised total of 243,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to drop by 1,000 to 240,000 last week.
Meanwhile, market participants were concerned about Trump’s ability to gather enough support for his healthcare bill – set to replace Obamacare and one of his key campaign pledges.
The commodity-related Canadian dollar was also under pressure however, as oil prices moved lower after data on Wednesday showed that that crude oil inventories rose by 5.0 million barrels last week to an all-time high of 533.1 million.
The loonie was steady against the euro, with EUR/CAD at 1.4387.