Investing.com - The U.S. dollar dropped against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, pulling away fron recent three-month highs after downbeat U.S. jobless claims data and a positive report on Canadian housing prices.
USD/CAD hit 1.2667 during early U.S. trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2693, declining 0.40%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2562, the low of July 6 and resistance at 1.2768, Wednesday's high.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending July 4 increased by 15,000 to 297,000 from the previous week’s total of 282,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to fall by 7,000 to 275,000 last week.
The greenback had briefly weakened after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's June policy meeting released on Wednesday showed that policy makers need to see more signs of a strengthening U.S. economy before raising interest rates.
The minutes also pointed to concerns over Greece's financial problems, signaling that global market turmoil could derail the Fed's rate hike plans if contagion spreads.
In Canada, data on Thursday showed that new housing prices rose 0.2% in May, beating expectations for an uptick of 0.1% after a 0.1% rise the previous month.
The Canadian dollar also strengthened as oil prices recovered from a recent downward trend and surged by nearly 3% in early U.S. trade
But markets were jittery after Greece requested a new three-year bailout from its euro zone creditors and pledged some economic overhauls on Wednesday.
Whether European leaders accept Greece's request for more emergency loans at a crisis summit on Sunday will depend on whether Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras makes a drastic turnaround on pension cuts, tax increases and other austerity measures after five months of negotiations.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said that "the actual examination can only begin once the full package has been put on the table."
The loonie was higher against the euro, with EUR/CAD retreating 0.66% to 1.4021.