Forex - USD/CAD hits 3-day low ahead of U.S. budget talks

Published 12/27/2012, 09:22 AM
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Investing.com - The U.S. dollar fell to a three-day low against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, amid hopes President Barack Obama and Republicans will reach a budget agreement to avert the looming fiscal cliff ahead of the year-end deadline.

USD/CAD hit 0.9909 during early U.S. trade, the session low and the lowest since December 21; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9105, dipping 0.25%.

The pair was likely to find support at 0.9871, December 21’s low and resistance at 0.9950, Wednesday’s high.

Market players continued to focus on developments surrounding the fiscal cliff in the U.S., approximately USD600 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts due to come into effect on January 1.

President Barack Obama was to end his vacation and return to Washington on Thursday in order to take part in talks to avert the crisis ahead of the year-end deadline. Both chambers of Congress are also due to return to work on Thursday.

In addition, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Wednesday that the USD16.4 trillion debt ceiling limit will be hit on December 31. Geithner added that "accounting measures" will be taken to create "headroom" in order to delay a technical violation.

The temporary moves would create USD200 billion in “headroom,” enough to last for approximately two months under normal circumstances.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a report earlier that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending December 22 fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000, compared to expectations for a decline of 2,000 to 360,000.

Jobless claims for the preceding week were revised up to 362,000 from a previously reported 361,000,

Elsewhere, the loonie, as the Canadian dollar is also known, was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD rising 0.14% to hit 1.3168.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish data on new home sales and consumer confidence.

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