Investing.com - The U.S. dollar rose to fresh six-week highs against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, even after data showed that last week's U.S. jobless claims rose more than expected, as expectations for a U.S. rate hike in the near future continued to support.
USD/CAD hit 1.2513 during early U.S. trade, the pair's highest since April 15; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2504, gaining 0.42%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2395, Wednesday's low and resistance at 1.2570, the high of April 15.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending May 23 rose by 7,000 to 282,000 from the previous week’s total of 275,000.
Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to fall by 5,000 to 270,000 last week.
Demand for the dollar continued to be underpinned as economic data released in the past week, including reports on inflation, new home sales, business investment and consumer confidence all indicated that the U.S. economy is gaining momentum after a slowdown in the first quarter.
Expectations that the economy will rebound from the first quarter have supported the view that the Federal Reserve will begin to hike interest rates around September.
In Canada, data on Thursday showed that the current account deficit widened to C$17.5 billion in the first quarter from C$13.1 billion in the last quarter of 2014, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of C$13.9 billion.
Analysts had expected the current account deficit to widen to C$18.5 billion in the last quarter.
The loonie was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD rising 0.31% to 1.3618.