Investing.com - The U.S. dollar trimmed losses against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, boosted by upbeat U.S. jobless claims data, although a positive trade balance report from Canada lent support to the local currency.
USD/CAD pulled away from 1.2463, the session low, to hit 1.2507 during early U.S. trade, still down 0.52%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2351, the low of February 3 and resistance at 1.2644, the high of February 3.
The greenback found support after the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending January 31 increased by 11,000 to 278,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 267,000.
Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 23,000 to 290,000 last week.
A separate report showed that the U.S. trade deficit widened to $46.56 billion in December from $39.75 billion in November, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of $39.00 billion. Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to $38.00 billion in December.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada said the country's trade deficit widened to C$0.65 billion in December from C$0.34 billion in November, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of C$0.64 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to widen to C$1.00 billion in December.
The loonie was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD shedding 0.21% to 1.4293.