• Oil prices made strong gains following the publication of the US inventory data yesterday 
  
  
• Brent increased in price by $1.5 to $54.5 per barrel, while WTI rose by almost $2 to $49.5 per barrel
  
  
• Better tone in crude oil prices was lending extra support to the Canadian dollar
  
  
• USD/CAD managed to reverse Wednesday's sharp pullback, but gains were capped 1.2993, just ahead of 1.30 barrier
  
  
• At the time of writing the pair is slightly low from day's highs, trading at 1.2976, range 1.2993/1.2942
  
  
• Initial hurdle is seen at 1.2995 (high Jul 30) followed by 1.3043 (high Jul 28) and then 1.3046 (high Jul 23)
  
  
• Supports are located at 1.2940 (low Jul 30), 1.2861 (low Jul 29) and finally 1.2728 (low Jul 16)