The Canadian dollar showed mixed trading against its major counterparts in early New York trading on Thursday. While the loonie edged higher against the euro, it halted its recent slide against the currencies of the U.S. and Japan.
The loonie trimmed some of its recent losses against the dollar and the yen as the price of crude oil drifted higher as traders await cues from the political developments in the Greece as well as jobless claims data from the U.S.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for June delivery were up $0.20 to $93.01 a barrel. Yesterday, oil ended at a near six-month low as continued concerns over the Greece crisis sparked-off commodity sell-offs.
Adding to the pressure on crude prices were demand growth concerns after an Energy Information Administration report showed U.S. oil stockpiles to have increased more than expected.
Wednesday during trading hours the EIA said that US crude oil inventories jumped by 2.10 million barrels, while gasoline stocks eased 2.80 million barrels in the weekended May 11. Analysts were expecting crude oil inventories to jump 1.7 million barrels, while gasoline stocks are seen shedding 500,000 barrels last week.
Snapping Asian session's 3-day low of 1.2904 against the euro, the Canadian dollar rose as high as 1.2858 before leveling off around 8:00 am ET.
The euro has been under pressure after Greece announced it would hold fresh elections on June 17. The European Central Bank has reportedly halted monetary policy operations to some Greek lenders to restrict its risk.
ECB President Mario Draghi is of the view that the lender would not compromise on its key principles to keep the debt-ridden nation in the euro area. Reports on Wednesday said Greece's Central bank Chief George Provopoulos told President Karolos Papoulias that people withdrew as much as 700 million euros amid the uncertainty, and banks fear about their survival.
Meanwhile, Spain's borrowing costs increased at a short-term debt auction, which met the maximum target. The treasury sold 2.5 billion euros, compared to the target range of 1.5 billion euros to 2.5 billion euros.
The Canadian currency paused its previous session's downtrend against the currencies of the U.S. and Japan ahead of the North American session.
The loonie is presently quoted at 79.20 against the yen, off its recent hit multi-month low of sub 79.0. Against the US dollar, the Canadian unit is now hovering around the 1.0140 level after having touched 1.0160 earlier for the first time after January 23.
Traders await fresh clues from various economic events from both Canada and the U.S. Canada's wholesales sales and International securities transactions data-both for March is due shortly at 8:30 am ET.
South of the boarder, the US jobless claims for the weekending May 12, leading indicators for April and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing data for May are expected in the New York morning.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com