Investing.com - The U.S. dollar pared back gains against the Canadian dollar on Wednesday following the release of some mixed U.S. housing data, as investors awaited the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting later in the day.
USD/CAD was last up 0.36% to 1.1339, off session highs of 1.1355.
The greenback gave up some gain after data showed that U.S. housing starts fell unexpectedly in October.
The Commerce Department reported that housing starts fell 2.8% to an annual rate of 1.009 million, compared to expectations for a rate of 1.025 million.
However, the report said the decline was due to a 15.4% drop in the volatile multi-family home segment, while starts for single-family homes, the largest part of the market, rose to their highest level in a year.
In addition, September's starts were revised up a rate of 1.038 million from 1.017 million.
The number of building permits issued last month jumped 4.8% to 1.080 million, the most since June 2008.
Investors were awaiting the minutes of the Fed’s October meeting, which were expected to highlight the growing monetary policy divergence between the U.S. central bank and its peers in Europe and Japan.
The Fed’s October policy statement noted that both the labor market and the inflation outlook were improving. Markets are currently expecting the U.S. central bank to start raising rates sometime around September 2015.
Elsewhere, the Canadian dollar was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD rising 0.52% to 1.4233.