The USD/CAD pair lacked any firm directional bias and remained confined in a range, above the 1.2800 mark through the Asian session on Friday. A combination of factors failed to assist the pair to capitalize on the previous day's positive move, instead led to a subdued/range-bound price action on the last trading day of the week. The US dollar was seen consolidating its recent strong gains to over two-month tops.
Apart from this, the prevalent bullish sentiment surrounding crude oil prices continued underpinning the commodity-linked loonie and further collaborated towards capping gains for the USD/CAD pair. The greenback has been strengthening recently amid hopes for massive fiscal spending, progress with coronavirus vaccinations and signs of a strong economic recovery. Expectations of a larger government borrowing to fund the stimulus pushed the benchmark 10-year US government bond yields closer to 10-month tops touched in January.