USD/CAD up little, around 1.2830 level

   •  Last week’s dovish BoC decision weighing on CAD.
   •  Bullish crude oil prices could restrict strong up-move. 
   •  Likely to consolidate ahead of FOMC and NFP. 

The USD/CAD pair gained some fresh positive traction at the start of a new trading week and held comfortably above the 1.2800 handle. 

The pair ticked higher despite a subdued US Dollar price action and sliding US Treasury bond yields, led by speculations that the US President Donald Trump favored Jerome Powell as the next Fed Chair.

Traders even seemed to have largely ignored the prevailing bullish sentiment around crude oil prices, which tends to underpin the commodity-linked currency - Loonie. 

Last week's dovish BoC decision, coupled with firming expectations over a December Fed rate hike move remained supportive of the pair's modest up-move at the start of a new trading week. 

However, Friday's sharp pull-back from levels beyond the 1.2900 handle, the highest since July 12, could be seen as the first sign of a possible short-term bullish exhaustion and hence, could lead to some additional consolidation ahead of this week's key event risks.

Heading into Wednesday's FOMC decision and the keenly watched NFP data on Friday, today's US economic docket, featuring the release of core PCE price index, personal income/spending data, might provide some short-term trading impetus.

Technical levels to watch

Bulls would be eyeing for a sustained move back beyond mid-1.2800s, above which the pair is likely to make a fresh attempt towards reclaiming the 1.2900 handle before eventually darting towards its next major hurdle near the 1.2945-50 region.

On the flip side, the 1.2800 handle remains an immediate support to defend, which if broken might trigger a short-term corrective slide towards 1.2760 level en-route the 1.2700 mark and the 1.2680-70 strong horizontal support.