Canadian dollar rebounds from an earlier slide.
When the market opened for the week, USD/CAD jumped a handful of pips from Friday's 1.2186 closing level but the loonie has been solid since. That's pulled the pair close to the Asia-Pacific low of 1.2150 despite at 20-cent fall in WTI crude oil prices to $56.95.
USDCAD two-day
Oil settlement flows tend to hit at this time of the month and that could be underpinning the loonie, despite a broad bid in the US dollar. Canada's largest driller -- Precision Drilling -- also posted better numbers and raised capex forecasts in a sign that layoffs in the Canadian oil patch may slow.
JPMorgan economists are out with a report calling Bank of Canada Governor Poloz the 'optimist-in-chief' for his rosy outlook, with a recap from the Globe and Mail.
[JPMorgan] said that the first eight statements under the central bank chief "presented the logic for the desired rotation, Poloz's quixotic quest," followed by suggestions that there had been few signs of this.
The next three policy announcements "adopted a more constructive tone on the rebalancing process, but emphasized that 'this pickup will need to be sustained.'"
And, unfortunately, of course, it wasn't sustained because oil prices plunged and the U.S. economy took a breather.
Then, in this year's first statement, the Bank of Canada rightly noted the uncertainty in the economy from the oil shock.
The followed to "endorsed a more constructive outlook," highlighting that the rebalancing was under way.
