On Thursday, the USD/CAD currency pair pulled back from the session highs of about 1.3900 to trade at about 1.3845. The currency pair trades within an ascending channel formation in the 60-minute chart.
The pair also continues to trade slightly above the 100-hour moving average line. However, Thursday’s pullback prevented the currency pair from entering the overbought conditions in the 14-hour RSI.
USD/CAD Fundamentals Overview
From a fundamental perspective, the USD/CAD currency pair trades during a relatively busy period in the U.S. market. On Thursday, the durable goods orders for March came in stronger than expected with a change of 9.2% versus a forecast of 2%. The durable goods orders ex-defence also beat the forecast of 0.2% with a change of 10.4%, while the durable goods orders ex-transportation missed the estimate of 0.2% with a change of 0%.
On the other hand, the nondefense capital goods orders ex-aircraft fell short of 0.2% with a change of 0.1%, while the existing home sales change for the month failed to match the forecast of -3 with -5.9. Elsewhere, the initial jobless claims for the week ending April 18 came in slightly higher than expected with 222k versus a forecast of 221k, up from the preceding week’s claim count of 216k.
Earlier in the week, the preliminary S&P Global Manufacturing PMI for April outperformed the expectation of 49.4 with a reading of 50.7, while the preliminary S&P Global Services PMI for the period missed 52.8 with a reading of 51.4. In Canada, traders will be looking forward to the retail sales data for March on Friday.
USD/CAD Technical Analysis (the 60-min Chart)
Technically, the USD/CAD currency pair trades within an ascending channel formation in the 60-minute chart. However, the 14-hour RSI has recently pulled back to avoid rallying into overbought conditions.
Therefore, the bears will look to extend the current pullback towards 1.3797 or lower to 1.3747. On the other hand, the bulls will look to pounce on profits at about 1.3900 or higher at 1.3949.
USD/CAD Technical Analysis (the Daily Chart)
In the daily chart, the USD/CAD currency pair trades within a descending channel formation. The 14-day RSI also supports a bearish bias as it is on the verge of entering oversold conditions.
Therefore, the bears will look to stretch the currency decline towards 1.3634 or lower to 1.3422. On the other hand, the bulls will look to pounce on rebounds at about 1.4076 or higher at 1.4284.