USD/CAD refreshes session tops, around 1.3170 post-US/Canadian data

• USD/CAD edges higher and hits fresh daily tops in the last hour.
• Canadian economic activity unexpectedly contracts in November.
• Mixed US Durable Goods Orders data failed to provide any impetus.

The USD/CAD pair refreshed session tops and has now moved back within the striking distance of near one-week tops set on Friday.

The pair built on last week's recovery move from the 1.3100 handle, or seven-week lows, and gained some follow-through traction for the third consecutive session on the first day of a new trading week.

The positive momentum remained well supported the disappointing release of Canadian monthly GDP print, which showed that the economic activity unexpectedly contracted by 0.1% in November.

On the contrary, the US dollar held on to its mildly positive tone through the early North-American session and remained rather unaffected by the mixed release of Durable Goods Orders data for November.

In fact, the headlines durable goods orders tumbled 2% during the reported month as compared to a 0.5% rise recorded in the previous month and worse than consensus estimates pointing to 1.5% increase.

The USD negative data, to some extent, was negated by better-than-expected growth in core durable goods orders and non-defense capital goods orders, seen as a proxy for business investment.

Meanwhile, oil prices managed to recover the early lost ground, which extended some support to the commodity-linked currency – loonie and further collaborated towards capping gains for the major.

Technical levels to watch