USD/CAD consolidates daily gains near 1.3070
- WTI fails to rise above $59, looks to settle with small losses.
- US Dollar Index remains on track to post weekly gains.
- Industrial Production in US declined 0.3% in December.
After spending a large portion of the day moving sideways below the 1.3050 handle, the USD/CAD pair gained traction during the American trading hours and touched a fresh daily high of 1.3075 before going into a consolidation phase. As of writing, the pair was up 0.2% on the day at 1.3067, adding around 20 pips for the week.
The broad-based USD strength and crude oil's uninspiring performance on Friday allowed the pair to push higher on Friday.
Greenback looks to wrap up the week on a strong footing
The US Dollar Index, which failed to make a daily close above the 97.50 mark since the start of the week, capitalized on the rising US Treasury bond yields and upbeat macroeconomic data releases from the US to touch its highest level since December 26 at 97.66. At the moment, the index is adding 0.3% on the day at 97.62 and is looking to post weekly gains for the second straight time.
The US Census Bureau announced that Housing Starts increased by 16.9% in December to 1,608,000, the highest reading in 13 years. Additionally, Manufacturing Production expanded by 0.2% despite a 0.3% contraction in Industrial Production.
In the meantime, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) failed to build on Thursday's recovery gains to make it difficult for the commodity-sensitive Loonie to show resilience against the USD. The weekly data published by Baker Hughes on Friday showed that the number of active oil rigs in the US rose to 673 from 699 to further weigh on crude oil prices. The WTI was last seen trading at $58.35, losing 0.35% on the day.
Technical levels to watch for