Canadian Dollar Edges Higher as Crude Prices Jump, Outperforms G10 Currencies

© Reuters.

By Ketki Saxena

Investing.com -- The Canadian dollar eked out a gain against its US counterpart today, outperforming major G10 currencies as a jump in crude prices helped offset risk aversion and a dominant dollar.

Crude prices helped boost the commodity-linked Canadian currency as a second consecutive weekly drop in US crude stockpiles exacerbated worries of tight global supply, and outweighed worries of slowing demand as Fed fears remained at the forefront.

Erik Bregar, director, FX & precious metals risk management at Silver Gold Bull notes that the Canadian dollar has been driven by "the positive influence of rising oil prices compet[ing] with the negative influence of falling stock prices".

Meanwhile, the US dollar continued to rise against a basket of major currencies as US 10-year yields held near 16-year highs.

On a technical level for the pair, analysts at FX Street note, "The USD/CAD is getting pinned to the 34-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) on daily candles, and the pair is at risk of falling back to the 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) just north of 1.3450."

"A continued backslide will see the pair testing the 200-hour SMA near 1.3480, with technical support coming from a rising trendline from last week's swing lows near 1.3430 and 1.3450."

Looking ahead for the pair, analysts at ANZ see Canadian dollar strength in the near term, noting that "Higher Oil prices should support the CAD on an intraday trading basis – especially against the currencies of energy importer countries, like the JPY, EUR and GBP. "

In the longer term, ANZ analysts see the USD/CAD pair at 1.34 by year-end.