The USD/CAD pair dropped sharply in the last hour and refreshed its lowest level since the beginning of the week at 1.2809. As of writing, the pair was trading at 1.2811, losing 0.43% on the day. Although the most recent GOP tax reform bill showed that it aims to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% as expected, it leaves top individual tax rate at 39.6%. Moreover, according to the National Association of Realtors President William Brown, the current form of the bill puts the middle-class homeowners and house values at risk as it nullifies the tax incentives for ownership. Impacted negatively by this development, the 10-year US Treasury-bond yield lost more than 1%, pushing the US Dollar Index to its session low at 94.34. Following the initial reaction, the index recovered some of its losses and was last seen at 94.50, losing 0.16% on the day. Earlier in the day, the data released by the US Department of Labor showed that weekly initial jobless claims eased to 229K from 234K for the week ending October 28, easing to its lowest level since 1973. On the other hand, after surging above the $55 handle and making a technical correction to close the day with modest losses at $54.30 on Wednesday, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate is moving in a tight range on Thursday, allowing the commodity-sensitive loonie to preserve its strength against the buck. At the moment, the barrel of WTI is flat on the day at $54.30. Later in the session, New York Fed President William Dudley is going to be delivering a speech, but it's unlikely to trigger sharp fluctuations as investors will be waiting for Trump's announcement of the next Fed chair.