Investing.com - The U.S. dollar slipped lower against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, after the release of mixed U.S. economic reports and as sentiment on the commodity-related Canadian currency remained fragile ahead of the weekly U.S. crude oil inventories report.
USD/CAD was down 0.10% at 1.2524 by 09:30 a.m. ET (13:30 GMT), not far from a two-month low of 1.2500 hit on Wednesday.
Payrolls processor ADP reported on Thursday that U.S. private employers added 250,000 jobs in December, well above economists' expectations.
A separate report showed that U.S. jobless claims increased by 3,000 last week to 250,000, disappointing expectations for a 6,000 decline.
The U.S. dollar briefly recovered after Fed policymakers acknowledged, in the minutes of the Federal Reserve's December meeting released Wednesday, that the U.S. labor market and economic activity remain strong, despite persistently low inflation.
The minutes seemed to suggest that the central bank will continue to raise rates gradually but the pace could pick up if inflation rises.
Market watchers were now looking ahead to U.S. nonfarm payrolls data due on Friday.
The Canadian dollar was vulnerable as oil prices struggled to make any big moves ahead of the U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly U.S. crude oil inventories data, due later in the day.
The loonie was lower against the euro, with EUR/CAD up 0.35% to 1.5120.