Investing.com - The U.S. dollar rose near five-year highs against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, as positive U.S. jobless claims and industrial production data sent the greenback broadly higher, while a disapppoiting manufacturing report from Canada weighed on the loonie.
USD/CAD hit 1.1361 during early U.S. trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.1331, advancing 0.72%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.1222, Wednesday's low and resistance at 1.1386, Wednesday's high and a more than five-year peak.
The greenback strengthened broadly after the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending October 11 decreased by 23,000 to 264,000 from the previous week’s total of 287,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 3,000 to 290,000 last week.
A separate report showed that U.S. industrial production climbed 1.0% last month, beating expectations for a 0.4% rise. August's figure was revised to a 0.2% slip from a previously estimated 0.1% downtick.
Demand for the safe-haven U.S. dollar was also underpinned by growing concerns over the spread of Ebola.
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama said the country's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would send rapid response teams to any new suspected Ebola cases in the U.S. Mr. Obama's comments came after the infection of a second Texas health care worker.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported that manufacturing sales declined by 3.3% in August, compared to expectations for a 2.0% fall. July's figure was revised to an increase of 2.9% from a previously estimated 2.5% rise.
The loonie was steady against the euro, with EUR/CAD inching up 0.02% to 1.4443.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region.