USD/CAD trades with modest gains, above mid-1.3100s

   •  A modest USD rebound helped regain some positive traction.
   •  Bullish oil prices underpin Loonie and might cap further gains.

The USD/CAD pair caught some fresh bids at the start of a new trading week and recovered a part of Friday's slide to over one-week lows.

With investors still assessing Friday's dovish comments by the Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, saying that interest rates are nearing a neutral rate, a modest US Dollar rebound was seen as one of the key factors behind the pair's modest rebound on Monday.

Given Friday's resilience to breakthrough over one-month-old ascending trend-channel support, today's up-move could further be attributed to some short-covering move. 

The uptick, however, seemed lacking conviction amid a strong follow-through upsurge in crude oil prices, which underpinned demand for the commodity-linked currency - Loonie and might keep a lid on any meaningful up-move, at least for the time being.

In fact, WTI crude oil built on last week's goodish rebound and got an additional boost after de-facto OPEC leader Saudi Arabia was said to push OPEC and its allies to cut output in December from 1 million to 1.4 million bpd to counter a slowdown in global demand. 

In absence of any major market moving economic releases, either from the US or Canada, the pair remains at the mercy of broader market sentiment surrounding the greenback and oil price dynamics. 

Technical levels to watch

Any meaningful up-move is likely to confront some fresh supply near the 1.3200 handle, above which the pair is likely to aim back towards challenging the 1.3250-60 supply zone before eventually darting towards the 1.3300 round figure mark.

On the flip side, the 1.3130-25 zone now seems to have emerged as an immediate support, which if broken might drag the pair below the 1.3100 mark towards testing 50-day SMA support, currently near the 1.3045 region.