USD/CAD clings to modest gains, near mid-1.2300s

The greenback extended Fed-inspired up-move and helped the USD/CAD pair to trade with mild positive bias for the fifth consecutive session, closer to two-week tops. 

The pair on Wednesday surged nearly 200-pips from sub-1.2200 level after the Fed indicated that it remains on track to deliver one more interest rate hike in 2017. Broad based US Dollar rally, to some extent, was being negated by a strong up-move in oil prices, which underpinned the commodity-linked currency - Loonie and capped further up-move.

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With crude oil prices retreating a bit, on concerns over rising US crude inventories, a follow through greenback buying interest remained supportive of the pair's modest uptick to mid-1.2300s during early European session on Thursday.

Moving ahead, traders would now take cues from today's economic docket, featuring Canadian Wholesale Sales data along with the usual weekly jobless claims and Philly Fed manufacturing index from the US. 

Technical levels to watch

On a sustained move beyond 1.2350 area, the pair is likely to make a fresh attempt towards reclaiming the 1.2400 handle before eventually darting towards 1.2435 intermediate hurdle en-route 50-day SMA near the key 1.2500 psychological mark.

On the flip side, the 1.2300 handle now becomes immediate support to defend, which if broken could accelerate the fall back towards 1.2240-35 zone ahead of the 1.2200-1.2190 strong support.