US Weekly Jobless Claims decrease. Dollar is mixed on last Currency Trading day of 2008.| CountingPips Forex Blog

December 31, 2008 - Forex Economic News

US Weekly Jobless Claims decrease. Dollar is mixed on last Currency Trading day of 2008.

Weekly U.S. jobless claims declined in the week that ended on December 27th according to a release by the U.S. Labor Department today. New weekly jobless claims fell by 94,000 workers to a total of 492,000 unemployed workers. The previous week's 586,000 unemployed US Dollar mixed in Currency Trading workers marked a 26-year high in new unemployment claims. The decrease in claims surpassed economic forecasts that were predicting a decline to 575,000 jobless claims for the week. A 4-week moving average of new claims decreased by 5,750 from the previous week to 552,250 unemployed workers.

Workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending December 20th increased by 140,000 to total 4,506,000 unemployed workers. The four week moving average of continuing benefits claims increased by 103,750 workers to total 4,422,500 workers seeking continued unemployment benefits.

US Dollar mixed in forex currency today.

The U.S. dollar has been mixed in the thin holiday currency trading on the last day of 2008. Some of today's forex action has been very volatile with big moves taking place in currency pairs like the USD/CAD, GBP/USD and AUD/USD.

The European euro has lost ground versus the dollar today as the EUR/USD has declined from today's 1.4082 opening at 00:00GMT to trading at approximately 1.3937 in the afternoon of the US trading session at 12:48pm ET.

The British pound has advanced today versus the American currency from the 1.4444 opening to trading at 1.4631 dollars per pound. A few huge moves have taken place in this currency pair today as the GBP/USD, at one point, dropped over 200 pips in one hourly move only to regain that ground the next hour.

The dollar has gained ground against the Japanese yen today as the USD/JPY has gained from its 90.32 opening to trading at 90.76.

The dollar has declined against the Canadian dollar as the USD/CAD trades at 1.2125 after opening at 1.2183 earlier today. The USD/CAD pair has made volatile moves today and spiked up to a high of 1.2372 today before retreating. The USD has also advanced against the Swiss franc from 1.0578 to trading at 1.0688.

The Australian dollar has been shooting higher today versus the USD as the AUD/USD has gained from its 0.6928 opening to trading at 0.7065. The New Zealand dollar has also gained versus the USD and trades at 0.5872 after opening at 0.5795 today at 00:00 GMT.

Wishing everyone a happy new year.

CountingPips would like to wish everyone a very happy new year and may all of your trading goals be reached!

GBP/USD Chart - The British Pound advancing today against the US Dollar with some very volatile swings taking place on the last day of trading in 2008(Hourly Chart).

Today's Forex Chart

tags: jobless claims, forex trading, currency markets, trading

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