USD/CAD rebounds from two-week low, inches back closer to mid-1.2600s amid stronger USD

• USD/CAD reversed an intraday dip to sub-1.2600 levels, or over a two-week low.
• Resurgent USD demand turned out to be a key factor that extended some support.
• Steady oil prices, upbeat Canadian data underpinned the loonie and capped gains.

The USD/CAD pair built on its steady intraday recovery move from over a two-week low and climbed to a fresh daily top, around the 1.2635-1.2640 region during the early North American session.

A combination of factors assisted the USD/CAD pair to attract some buying on the last day of the week and reverse the early dip to sub-1.2600 levels. A goodish pickup in demand for the US dollar acted as a tailwind for spot prices. Apart from this, an intraday pullback in crude oil prices undermined the commodity-linked loonie and provided modest lift to the major.

Investors turned caution amid the lack of progress in the Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations. In fact, Ukrainian Presidential aide Ihor Zhovkva said that talks with Russia are progressing very slowly. Russia accused Ukraine of slowing down peace talks and said that it wants to go at a faster pace, though the Ukraine delegation has not shown readiness to speed talks.

This, in turn, tempered investors' appetite for perceived riskier assets ahead of a meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The market nervousness was evident from a softer tone around the equity markets, which drove some haven flows towards the greenback. Apart from this, the Fed's hawkish outlook further underpinned the buck.

Apart from the anti-risk flow, concerns about reduced fuel demand - amid the resurgent of COVID-19 cases in China, Europe and New Zealand - weighed on crude oil prices. That said, the intraday downtick in the black liquid remained limited. This, along with better-than-expected Canadian macro data, benefitted the domestic currency and capped the USD/CAD pair.

According to the data released by Statistics Canada, the headline Retail Sales rose at a pace of 3.2% MoM in January as against the consensus estimate for a growth of 2.4%. This comes on the back of hotter-than-expected Canadian consumer inflation figures, which should further add pressure on the Bank of Canada to accelerate rate hikes.

The fundamental backdrop warrants some caution before confirming that the USD/CAD pair has bottomed out or positioning for any meaningful appreciating move. That said, bearish traders are likely to wait for sustained break below the 200-day SMA. Some follow-through selling below the monthly low, around the 1.2585 region, will set the stage for additional losses.

Technical levels to watch