Investing.com - The Canadian dollar was almost unchanged against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as strong U.S. private sector hiring data offset higher prices for oil, a major Canadian export.
USD/CAD was a shade lower at 1.3398 by 09.25 ET, after touching intra-day lows of 1.3380.
Oil prices climbed for a second day, touching a one month high as a decline in U.S. crude stocks lifted hopes that an OPEC-brokered output cut is reducing a global glut, while an unplanned production outage in the North Sea also lent support.
U.S. crude stockpiles fell by a larger-than-forecast 1.8 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute reported on Tuesday.
Traders were turning their attention to the government’s inventory data, due out at 10.30 ET to see if it would confirm the drop.
The loonie’s gains were held in check following the release of stronger-than-forecast data on U.S. private sector hiring.
Payroll processor ADP reported that the U.S. private sector created 263,000 new jobs in March, far more than the 187,000 which economists had expected.
But investors remained cautious ahead of what was expected to be a tense summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday to discuss U.S.-China trade and security issues, including North Korea’s arms program.
The greenback has come under pressure in recent weeks amid growing doubts over whether the Trump administration's economic proposals would boost the U.S. economy and allow the Federal Reserve to tighten policy more aggressively.
The Fed was to release the minutes of its March meeting later Wednesday, ahead of Friday’s U.S. jobs report.