Investing.com - The U.S. dollar erased losses against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, after upbeat U.S. jobless claims data and a more disappointing building permits report from Canada.
USD/CAD eased off 1.2851, the session low, to hit 1.2902 during early U.S. trade, up 0.10%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2818, Wednesday’s low and resistance at 1.2934, the high of September 6.
The U.S. Department of Labor said initial jobless claims in the week ending September 3 decreased by 4,000 to 259,000 from the previous week’s total of 263,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 265,000 last week.
However, sentiment on the greenback remained vulnerable after downbeat U.S. employment data published last Friday crushed expectations for an upcoming rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
Also Thursday, Statistics Canada reported that building permits rose 0.8% in July, compared to expectations for a 0.3% gain. Building permits dropped 5.3% in June, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 5.5% decline.
But the commodity-related Canadian dollar remained supported by sharply higher oil prices, as market players awaited fresh weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products.
The loonie was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD advancing 0.86% to 1.4608.
At the conclusion of its policy meeting, the European Central Bank said it was maintaining its benchmark interest rate at a record-low 0.0%, in line with market expectations. The central bank also held its deposit facility rate unchanged at-0.4% and left its marginal lending at 0.25%.
Additionally, the ECB kept the size of its monthly quantitative easing program at approximately €80 billion. The central bank reiterated that it is prepared to expand its monthly asset-purchase program beyond March 2017 if needed.