The USD/CAD pair maintained its strong bid tone through the mid-European session and shot to one-and-half-week tops in the last hour. The pair, however, retreated few pips thereafter and was last seen trading around the 1.2575 region, up 0.75% for the day. The pair gained traction for the fourth straight session on Tuesday and build on its recent bounce from the 1.2365 region, or the lowest level since February 2018 touched last week. The strong momentum was sponsored by a broad-based US dollar strength and a fresh leg down in crude oil prices, which tend to undermine the commodity-linked loonie.
WTI crude futures plunged over 4% intraday and slipped back below the $59.00/barrel mark. This was seen as another factor that contributed to the USD/CAD pair's strong intraday positive move. A sustained move beyond the 1.2600 mark will reaffirm the positive bias and allow bulls to challenge the 50-day SMA barrier, currently near the 1.2655-60 region.