US Income, Spending beat expectations. Oil falls, dollar rises in forex trade. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

August 4, 2008 - Forex Economic News

US Income, Spending beat expectations. Oil falls, dollar rises in forex trade.

The U.S. dollar has been on the rise verses most of the major currencies in forex trading today as U.S. economic data slightly beat market expectations and as crude oil has been in retreat. The Department of Commerce report today on personal income and outlays showed that personal income increased in June by 0.1 percent to $6.8 billion. This follows up May's US Economic Data - Income and Spending revised 1.8 percent rise and surpassed forecasts seeking a -0.2 percent result. Personal spending increased by 0.6 percent in June after a 0.8 percent increase in May and just slightly beat forecasts expecting a 0.5 percent rise.

The core personal consumption expenditure for the month of June, excluding energy prices, rose by 0.3 percent following a revised 0.2 percent increase in May. Year-over-year changes in the core PCE increased to 2.3 percent, up from a revised 2.2 percent in May. The monthly and yearly figures both surpassed expectations a bit as forecasts expected a monthly increase of 0.2 percent and a yearly increase of 2.2 percent.

A separate government report today released by the Census Bureau showed that factory orders increased for the fourth straight month in June. New orders for manufactured goods rose by 1.7 percent to $457.6 billion after a rise of 0.6 in May. Economic forecasts had expected factory orders to rise by 0.7 percent for the month. Shipments of manufactured goods rose by 1.6 percent in June while unfilled orders increased for the 28th out of the last 29 months.

New orders for manufactured durable goods also increased in June by 0.8 percent. Durable goods are products generally considered to last longer than 3 years. Shipments for durable goods rose by 2.5 percent in June following an increase of 1.7 percent in May. Unfilled orders and inventories of durable goods both also increased for June by 0.9 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.

Crude Oil fell in trading as U.S. crude futures touched below $120 a barrel today. This was the first time that light crude oil has been below $120/barrel since early May as oil fell $5.00 before recapturing some of its losses and trading back above $121/barrel.

The dollar has gained verses the Japanese yen today trading above 108.00 after ending last week at approximately 107.60. The dollar has also made some small gains verses the euro and trading around 1.5570 today. Verses the British pound sterling the dollar has increased its value to 1.9616 today.

Eurozone confidence falls, ppi increases.

European economic news released today showed that an investor confidence survey fell for the month of August and equaled its lowest level since 2003. Investor confidence according to the Sentix Group dropped from -9.3 in July to -15.3 in August surpassing market forecasts expecting a -10 confidence score and reaching its lowest level since July 2003. A separate report out of the eurozone by EuroStat showed that producer prices in the eurozone increased by 0.9 percent in June after a 1.2 percent rise in May. The annual rate of producer prices increased to an 8.0 percent rise over last years level following May's annual rate of 7.1 percent. Market forecasts were expecting a 0.8 percent rise in June and a 7.9 percent rise in the annual rate. PPI excluding energy prices were up 0.4 percent in June.

USD/JPY Chart - The dollar gains against the yen today in forex trading. 4H chart.

Forex Chart

tags: dollar, euro, forex trade, currency trading, spending, oil, factory orders

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