USD/CAD steady after US initial jobless claims, Canadian NHPI

US dollar traded steadily and in proximity to three-week highs against its Canadian counterpart on Thursday, despite the downbeat initial jobless claims data out of the United States.

Having touched a session low at 1.0383 at 10:45 GMT, USD/CAD gained some ground to reach 1.0394 at 13:22 GMT. Support was likely to be received at October 9th low, 1.0356, while resistance was to be met at September 9th high, 1.0417.

It became clear that the number of people, who filed for unemployment assistance in the United States, jumped last week, as data processing difficulties in California continued, while the number of laid off people in countrys private sector increased. The number of initial jobless claims rose by 66 000 to reach 374 000 during the week ending on October 5th 2013. Preliminary estimates pointed that claims will remain close to the registered level during the preceding week at 308 000. This was the largest weekly climb since March. Almost half of the claims were filed in California, where agencies were introducing a new computer system. About 15 000 claims belong to non-governmental employees, who lost their jobs amid the partial government shutdown.

The greenback received a stable support against its major peers, after it became clear that US lawmakers for the first time have gathered around one possible way out of the fiscal crisis, a short-term deal to avoid country’s default. House Republicans are weighing a short-term raise in the debt ceiling, while Senate Democrats are not ruling out such a proposal, according to aides of both parties.

“As its looks as though we’re getting closer to a resolution, that’s probably the reason why we’ve seen equities rally and bonds yields pick up too, which is probably helping the Canadian dollar,” David Bradley, director of foreign-exchange trading at Scotia Capital Inc., a unit of Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), said by phone from Toronto, cited by Bloomberg. “We’re still basically in the range that we saw yesterday.”

Meanwhile, Canadian new housing price index (NHPI) rose 0.1% in August on a monthly basis, after the 0.2% gain during the preceding month, while expectations pointed a 0.3% climb. Results were favored mostly by price gains in Calgary. House prices there climbed 0.6% in August on labor, material and land costs, according to Statistics Canada. On the other hand, prices in Toronto, country’s largest city, remained little changed during the same month. Gains in Calgary have been almost neutralized by drop in prices in British Colombia, Vancouver and Victoria. On annual basis, the index advanced 1.8% in August.

Elsewhere, the loonie, as Canadian dollar is also known, was higher against the euro, with EUR/CAD cross erasing 0.10% for the day to trade at 1.4045 at 13:54 GMT. GBP/CAD pair was losing 0.16% to trade at 1.6560 at 13:55 GMT.