Pulling back from its Asian session's uptrend, the Canadian dollar lost ground against its major rivals in early trading on Thursday as crude oil fell more than $1 in the session, heading towards $78 per barrel.
Investors are looking for the U.S. government oil data for direction. The U.S. Energy Information Administration data, delayed by a day because of the Veteran's Day holiday, is expected to show a 600,000-barrel increase in crude stockpiles in the world's top energy user.
The Canadian dollar dropped to a 2-day low of 1.0548 against the greenback around 7:20 am ET, down by more than 1 percent from its Asian session's 3-week high of 1.042. The greenback-loonie pair that closed yesterday's deals at 1.0452 is presently quoted at 1.0537.
Traders will focus on the weekly jobless claims for the week ended November, to be released by the Labor Department at 8.30 a.m. ET. Economists expect jobless claims to decline slightly to 510,000 from 512,000 reported for the previous week.
Traders will also be presented with the Treasury Budget for October at 2.00 p.m. ET, which will give an indication about the budgetary trends as well as thrust on fiscal policy. Economists expect that the treasury budget show a deficit of $162.50 billion for the month.
The Canadian currency that surged to a fresh 3-week high of 1.5632 against the euro in the Asian session declined to 1.5736 around 7:30 am ET. The euro-loonie pair, which closed Wednesday's deals at 1.5664, is presently worth 1.5707.
Today, the Eurostat said in a report that Eurozone industrial production dropped 12.9% year-on-year in September, compared to the 15.1% fall in the previous month, revised from a 15.4% fall estimated initially. Economists expected a decline of 14.1%.
On a monthly basis, industrial production increased 0.3% in September, slower than the 1.2% growth in the preceding month, revised from a 0.9% rise estimated earlier. Economists were looking for an increase of 0.5%.
The loonie slipped to 85.31 against the Japanese yen around 7:30 am ET, down by 1.2 percent from its Asian session's 15-day high of 86.33. The loonie-yen pair is currently worth 85.39, compared to 86.02 hit late New York Wednesday.
Data released by the Bank of Japan revealed that domestic corporate goods prices declined 6.7% year-over-year during October, after having contracted 7.9% in the previous month. Analysts expected the prices to decline 6.0%.
On a monthly basis, prices declined 0.7%, higher than mean expectations of a 0.1% decline, and 0.1% rise in the previous month.
Looking ahead, statistics Canada will release its new housing price data for September at 8:30 am ET. Analysts expect the headline figure to rise 0.2 percent in the month.
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