Forex Trading: USD/CAD

USD/CAD has been in a strong uptrend recently; but the pair gave up some gains after Friday's positive NFP report and strong Canadian economic data.

USD/CAD Negative
- 50.7K Canadian jobs added versus expected 7.8K and previous -21.9K
- Canadian unemployment rate fell from 7.1% to 7.0%
- Good U.S. NFP report - Actual: 236K, Previous 162K, Previous revised down to 119K
(Note: institutional investors who want to speculate on the U.S. economic recovery while still getting some carry can buy the CAD as a proxy for the USD)
- Risk On: The CAD held up the best against the USD, with the Aussie & Kiwi close behind due to the increase in risk appetite stemming from the good economic data.

USD/CAD Positive
- The U.S. unemployment rate beat expectations and improved to 7.7% from 7.9% - this caused expectations to change about QE due to some of the stimulus being tied to a 6.5% unemployment rate target. This caused significant USD strength across the board against all of the major currencies except the Canadian dollar for the reasons listed above.

The 4 hour chart of USD/CAD below shows a clear break from the channel. This could turn into a sideways trading range or lead to a retracement.















The Daily chart below outlines the the support levels below in case the pair begins retracing, with a strong support range of 1.0100 - 1.0050