Dollar rises in Forex Trading - Durable Goods, Jobless Claims, New Home Sales data releases. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

April 24, 2008 - Forex Economic News

Dollar rises in Forex Trading - Durable Goods, Jobless Claims, New Home Sales data releases.

There was plenty of economic news out of the United States today with orders for durable goods, jobless claims and new home sales statistics being released. New orders for durable goods fell overall by 0.3 percent but orders excluding transportation increased more than expected at 1.5 percent. Jobless claims for the week fell while the new home sales data fell much more than expected at 8.5 percent and fell to the lowest sales level in over 16 years. The US dollar has been on the rise despite the grim home sales news and has gained against most majors in forex market trading. The dollar has particularly been on the rise against the euro today as a German Business Survey fell more than expected and has helped the dollar rebound. The dollar had fallen to a new record low verses the euro at 1.6019 dollars per euro on Tuesday, April 22nd after eurozone inflation data came in higher than expected. The dollar has been trading below the 1.5700 range today and was trading at 1.5647 per euro at noon EST. Gains have also been made by the dollar against the pound(1.9704), yen(104.32), aussie(.9393), franc(1.0356), kiwi(.7878) and Canadian loonie(1.0144).

Today's U.S. Economic Highlights - New Home Sales at lowest annual sales rate since 1991.

New Home Sales in the United States declined much more than expected in March and fell to the lowest level in over 16 years. New home sales data, released today by the Department of Commerce, fell 8.5 percent in March for an annual rate of 526,000 following February's revised total of 575,000 annual sales. Market forecasts had expected that new home sales would decrease by only 1.0 percent for a total of 584,000 annual sales. The sales drop in March to an annual rate of 526,000 sales marked the lowest annual rate since October of 1991. March's annual sales rate compared to March of 2007 is down by 36.6 percent. The median sales price of new homes registered $227,600 in March down from a revised $244,200 in February. The average sales price came in at $296,400 for February which was down from $321,500 in February 2007.

Durable Goods decline in March.

Durable goods orders in the U.S. fell 0.3 percent for March in news released by the U.S. Commerce Department today following up February's 0.9 percent decline. March saw a $0.7 billion drop in new orders for durable goods to a total of $212.2 billion. Market expectations had forecasted that durable goods orders would increase by 0.1 percent. New orders excluding transportation grew by 1.5 percent in March beating market expectations that predicted a smaller increase of 0.5 percent. Durable goods are products manufactured in the U.S. and considered to last more than three years. March results for shipments of durable goods decreased by 0.4 percent or $0.8 billion. Unfilled orders increased 0.9 percent in the month and durable good inventories increased 1.1 percent from February which saw a 0.5 gain. March nondefense orders for new goods increased by 1.1 percent while defense orders for goods declined by 19.8 percent.

Weekly Jobless Claims fall.

Weekly U.S. jobless claims decreased in the week that ended on April 19th according to the U.S. Labor Department today. Jobless claims totaled 342,000 unemployed workers, a decline of 33,000 from 375,000 unemployed workers the week prior. A 4-week moving average fell by 7,250 from the prior week to 369,500.

Workers continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending April 12th fell by 65,000 workers to 2,934,000, down from the week before which saw a revised 2,999,000. A four week moving average of continuing claims increased 20,500 from last week to 2,959,500. Last week's moving average registered 2,939,000.

Tags: us dollar, economy, jobless claims, new home sales, durable goods, orders, forex trading, currency rates

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