Investing.com - The U.S. dollar trimmed gains against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, despite the release of positive U.S. economic reports, as concerns over U.S. political turmoil continued to weigh heavily on the greenback
USD/CAD pulled back from 1.3670, the pair’s highest since May 15to hit 1.3609 during early U.S. trad, still up 0.08%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3568, Wednesday’s low and resistance at 1.3723, the high of May 15.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the initial jobless claims in the week ending May 13 decreased by 4,000 to 232,000 from the previous week’s total of 236,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 4,000 to 240,000 last week.
Separately, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its manufacturing index jumped to 38.8 this month from April’s reading of 22.0. Analysts had expected the index to decline to 19.5.
But the greenback remained under pressure following reports U.S. President Donald Trump asked former FBI Director James Comey to end the agency's investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia.
The U.S. dollar had already come under broad selling pressure after news that Trump shared sensitive intelligence with Russia's foreign minister in a meeting last week.
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed on Wednesday by the Justice Department as a special counsel to take over the probe into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported that foreign securities purchases rose by C$15.13 billion in March, disappointing expectations for an increase of 17.23 billion.
Foreign securities purchases climbed by C$39.16 billion in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated gain of C$38.84 billion.
The commodity-related Canadian dollar was also weighed by a sharp drop in oil prices on Thursday, amid ongoing concerns that a rebound in U.S. shale production is derailing efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
The loonie was higher against the euro, with EUR/CAD sliding 0.33% to 1.5128.