USD/CAD Rises On U.S. Oil Inventory Drawdown

 | Oct 06, 2016 03:11AM ET

The Canadian dollar rose after the release of the weekly U.S. crude oil inventories. Figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed a drawdown of 3 million barrels. The fall in weekly stock was not expected, as forecasts called for a buildup after four consecutive drawdowns. The Canadian dollar had been lower earlier in the trading session, after trade data was released with a narrowing of the trade deficit to $1.47 billion in August.

The Bank of Canada (BoC) is not expected to cut interest rates in two weeks despite the mixed tone of the trade report. The central bank has been awaiting the results of the fiscal stimulus launched by the government earlier this year and will continue using dovish rhetoric to keep the loonie from appreciating. Non-resource exports have not picked up as much as the BoC expected and the fate of oil prices is very much up in the air, as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production cut is subject to a more detailed agreement in the meeting in Vienna.

After the debacle of the Doha sessions it seems the OPEC seems to be checking all the boxes to avoid the meeting ending up as a failure to reach an agreement that is beneficial to all parties.

The CAD appreciated despite solid economic data out of the U.S. The ADP private payrolls added 154,000 jobs around 12,000 less than expected in September. The miss was not massive enough to warrant USD weakness and was balanced against a strong ISM non-manufacturing PMI that posted a 57.1 reading.

The strong rebound in the non-manufacturing sectors was across the board, as nearly all subcomponents showed an increase with the employment component rising 6.5 points, which could signal a positive U.S. nonfarm payrolls (NFP) number.