The Canadian dollar continues to trade strong against the US dollar into Thursday after making gains following the Fed’s December policy meeting even after industrial capacity in Canada declined in Q3 2019. At the time of writing, USD/CAD is trading at around 1.3

After the Fed announced its decision to hold interest rates steady for some time to come and painted a modest picture of economic growth outlook in the near future, the US dollar declined to a four-month low, driving bearishness in USD/CAD. In addition, a majority of Fed policymakers indicated their willingness to keep interest rates steady at least until 2021.

Gains were capped for the CAD after Statistics Canada revealed that industrial capacity declined to 81.7% in Q3 2019 from 83.3% in the previous quarter. Early on Thursday, the Canadian dollar also remains under slight pressure ahead of a speech by BOC Governor Poloz later today when he is likely to comment on the recent weak employment report.