Investing.com - The U.S. dollar trimmed losses and eased off fresh nine-month lows against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, after the release of mixed U.S. economic reports, although rising oil prices continued to support demand for the commodity-linked Canadian currency.
USD/CAD eased off 1.2529, the pair’s lowest since July 2015, to hit 1.2591 during early U.S. trade, still down just 0.07%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2470 and resistance at 1.2692, Wednesday’s high.
The Bureau of Economic Analaysis said that U.S. economic growth slowed to an annual rate of 0.5%, from the 1.4% expansion registered in the fourth quarter of 2015.
That was the slowest pace of growth since the first quarter of 2014 and missed consensus expectations for a 0.7% increase.
At the same time, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending April 23 decreased by 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 257,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 248,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 12,000 to 260,000 last week.
The data came a day after the Fed left interest rates unchanged close to zero on Wednesday and offered little guidance on future rate hikes.
Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar remained supported as oil prices continued to hover at five-month highs on Thursday.
The loonie was steady against the euro, with EUR/CAD at 1.4263.