USD/CAD drops below 1.3250 as WTI rebounds above $52

• Crude oil prices recover following Thursday's modest drop.
• US Dollar Index stays calm above 99 mark.
• Retail Sales and Industrial Production data from US coming up next.

The USD/CAD pair continues to react to crude oil's performance in the absence of significant macroeconomic data releases on Friday. As of writing, the pair was down 0.2% on the day at 1.3240.

Crude oil rises on hopes of deeper output cuts

After staging a decisive rebound during the first half of the week, crude oil prices lost the recovery momentum on Thursday amid resurfacing concerns over the coronavirus outbreak weighing on the global oil demand growth.

However, with reports suggesting that Russian oil firms were in favour of deepening the oil output cuts, crude oil gained traction and the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) advanced to its highest level of February above $52. As of writing, the WTI was up 1.4% on the day at $52.20, helping the commodity-related CAD find demand.

In the second half of the day, markets will be watching mid-tier macroeconomic data releases from US for fresh catalysts.

Ahead of Retail Sales, Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization and the University of Michigan's (UoM) Consumer Confidence Index data, the US Dollar Index is staying flat on the day near 99.10.

Technical levels to watch for

USD/CAD