Investing.com - The U.S. dollar trimmed losses against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, after the release of upbeat U.S. economic reports reassured markets, allowing the greenback to recover some losses posted following the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting.
USD/CAD pulled back from 1.2799, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2819, still down 0.19%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2714, the low of June 24 and resistance at 1.2919.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending August 13 decreased by 4,000 to 262,000 from the previous week’s total of 266,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to decline by 1,000 to 265,000 last week.
Separately, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its manufacturing index rose to 2.0 this month from July’s reading of minus 2.9, in line with the consensus estimate.
But sentiment on the greenback remained vulnerable after the minutes of the Fed’s July policy meeting, released on Wednesday, showed that policymakers were still divided over the need to raise interest rates this year.
"Some ... members anticipated that economic conditions would soon warrant taking another step in removing policy accommodation," the Fed said in the minutes.
However, several policymakers said they wanted to "leave their policy options open."
In Canada, data showed that foreign securities purchases rose by C$9.02 billion in June following an increase of C$13.99 billion in May, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated gain of C$14.73 billion.
The commodity-related Canadian dollar was also boosted by a rebound in oil prices after data on Wednesday showed that U.S. stockpiles dropped unexpectedly last week.
The loonie was steady against the euro, with EUR/CAD at 1.4498.