RTTN: Canadian Dollar Strengthens Against Most Majors
(RTTNews) - The Canadian dollar strengthened against most of its major rivals in early trading on Wednesday as crude oil extended its previous session's rally ahead of weekly crude oil inventories data from the U.S. Energy Department.
Light sweet crude oil for January delivery is presently quoted at $85.38 a barrel, up $1.27 a barrel from its previous close of $84.11 per barrel in New York on Tuesday. Oil reached as high as $85.53 earlier in the day.
The Energy Information Administration will release its customary weekly petroleum inventory report for the week ended November 26th at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Last week's EIA report showed that the U.S. commercial crude oil inventories were unexpectedly higher by 1.0 million barrels to 358.60 million. Analysts had been expecting crude oil inventories to fall by 1.80 million barrels and gasoline stocks to decrease by 500,000 barrel.
Tuesday, the API said U.S. crude oil inventories dipped by 1.14 million barrels, while gasoline stocks increased 1.07 million barrels in the week ended November 26. Analysts were expecting crude oil inventories to decrease by 1.5 million barrels last week.
After moving broadly range-bound in early Asian deals, the Canadian dollar climbed to 82.32 against the yen around 7:40 am ET. The loonie thus appreciated by more than 1.4 percent from Tuesday's 1-week low of 81.15.
Against the euro, the Canadian dollar reversed its early morning downtrend and advanced to as high as 1.3354 before leveling off around 7:30 am ET. On the upside, the Canadian dollar may retest yesterday's 2-1/2 month peak of 1.3265.
Improving from yesterday's fresh multi-week lows, the Canadian dollar rose to a session's highs of 1.0189 against the US dollar around 7:20 am ET. On the upside, the loonie may target resistance around the 1.0180 level in near-term.
Traders' focus will be shifted to a slew of economic data from south of the boarder, where the ADP non-farm private employment, results of the manufacturing survey of the Institute for Supply Management and construction spending from the Commerce Department have been slated for release shortly.
