TORONTO (Dow Jones)--The Canadian dollar ended little changed against its U.S. counterpart Wednesday, with the greenback hovering just below a key resistance level against its Canadian counterpart.
The U.S. dollar was at C$1.0039 late Wednesday, from C$1.0040 late Tuesday, according to data provider CQG. The U.S. unit reached a session high of C$1.0054 in overnight trading, its highest level since Jan. 31, according to data provider CQG.
The area around the C$1.0050 level is a key resistance level for the U.S./Canadian dollar pair that has formed the upper limit of its recent trading ranges, analysts said.
"[It's] still got to get through some pretty big resistance just up above and slightly below that 1.0050 level," said Stewart Hall, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets.
"It kind of peaked above it overnight, but certainly didn't break through decisively," he added. "I think that remains one of the key points of [USD/CAD] resistance."
Although a more positive outlook on risk drove much of the activity in global financial markets Wednesday, it didn't translate to strength in the Canadian dollar, which was languishing towards the bottom of the performance table among major currencies.
Looking more deeply into the second quarter, weakness in U.S. economic data could enable the U.S. dollar to break decisively about that zone, Hall said.
Weakness in the U.S. often results in weakness in the Canadian dollar since Canada's economy is so closely tied to that of the U.S.
Strong March housing starts data in Canada released early in the session had little impact on the currency.
On Thursday, merchandise trade data and the new housing price index will be released.
These are the exchange rates at 3:29 p.m. EDT (1929 GMT) and 8:00 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) Wednesday, and late Tuesday.
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