Oil prices remain on low ground and the Canadian dollar feels the pressure: USD/CAD finally made a move above 1.20 and hit a new high of 1.2016, the highest since 2009.
The previous high seen yesterday was 1.1993. Support awaits at around 1.1930.
There aren’t any big Canadian releases this week, but loonie trades will watch the publication of Crude Oil Inventories from the US later in the day.
Both WTI Crude Oil and Brent continued their slide well into the 40s: they even trade at similar levels. Both measures of oil are around $45 at the moment. For Canada, the most relevant measure is the Canadian West Select, which is even lower.
One of the most recent reasons for the fall in oil prices is the downgrade of global growth forecasts by the World Bank: from 3.5% to 3%, but there was a lot of pressure on the black gold beforehand.
One of the ways for Canada to export its oil was supposed to be the Keystone XL pipeline, but the White House insists that Obama will veto it, due to environmental concerns. Canada recently reported a loss of jobs for the month of December.
Here is the Dollar/CAD chart with lines on it:
