Investing.com - The U.S. dollar slipped lower against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, despite the release of positive U.S. jobless claims and disappointing home price data from Canada, as investors remained cautious ahead of additional U.S. reports due on Friday.
USD/CAD hit 1.3028 during early U.S. trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3034, down 0.18%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2986, Wednesday’s low and resistance at 1.3191, Tuesday’s high.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending August 6 decreased by 1,000 to 266,000 from the previous week’s total of 267,000, which was revised from the initial read of 269,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to drop by 4,000 to 265,000 last week.
Market participants were now looking ahead to Friday’s U.S. retail sales data for further indications on the strength of the economy after weak data published earlier in the week dampened expectations for a 2016 rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
Also Thursday, Statistics Canada reported that new home prices rose 0.1% in June, confounding expectations for a 0.3% gain and after an increase of 0.7% the previous month.
The commodity-related Canadian dollar found some support as oil prices bounced higher, although global supply glut worries persisted.
The loonie was higher against the euro, with EUR/CAD shedding 0.36% to 1.4542.