US Consumer Prices, Housing Starts fall in October. US Dollar falls in Forex Trading. | CountingPips Forex Blog

November 19, 2008 - Forex Economic News

US Consumer Prices, Housing Data fall in October. US Dollar falls in Forex Trading.

Consumer prices in the U.S. decreased by the most in over 60 years in October according to a report released today by the U.S. Department of Labor. The Consumer Price Index fell by 1.0 percent in October as falling energy prices continued to decrease and contribute significantly to the lower cpi levels. Consumer prices were unchanged in September following a 0.1 percent decrease in August. On an annual basis, consumer prices registered a 3.7 percent increase over October 2007 following a 4.9 percent annual increase in September. October's price reading surpassed USD falls in Currency Trading Today economic forecasts that were expecting a 0.8 percent monthly decline and a 4.1 percent annual increase. The consumer price decline marked the largest monthly decrease on record since 1947 and follows yesterday's record monthly drop in producer prices by 2.8 percent.

Core consumer prices, excluding food and energy prices, decreased 0.1 percent for October following a 0.1 increase in September. The annual change in core prices showed a 2.2 percent increase over October 2007 following September's 2.5 percent annual increase. Market forecasts were predicting core inflation to register a monthly increase of approximately 0.2 percent and an annual increase of 4.1 percent.

Contributing heavily to the lower consumer prices was a decrease in the prices for energy which fell by 8.6 percent in October while the gasoline price index also showed a significant 14.2 percent decline. The energy index had previously decreased by 1.9 percent in September and 3.1 percent in August after increasing by at least 4.0 percent in each of May, June and July. Also contributing to the lower cpi were decreases in apparel and transportation which fell 1.0 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively. Food prices saw an increase of 0.3 percent in October while medical care, recreation and education & communication all showed increased price levels for October.

Housing Starts, Building Permits, Completions fall.

U.S. housing starts, building permits and housing completions all declined in the month of October according to data released by the Commerce Department on new residential construction. Housing Starts fell by 4.5 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 791,000. October's total is down 38.0 percent compared with October of 2007. The decline in housing starts was still above the 780,000 annual rate the market forecasts were expecting for the month.

Building permits statistics, used as a predictor of future construction, showed a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 708,000 permits in October which is a decrease of 12.0 percent compared to September and a 40.1 percent drop from October of 2007. The October level in building permits was above the market forecasts that were expecting permits to number approximately 775,000 in September.

Housing Completions for October also fell when compared to September as completions decreased to an annual rate of 1,043,000 privately-owned housing completions. This is an decrease of 10.2 percent when compared to September's completion totals and 25.6 percent below the October 2007 level.

Forex - US Dollar falling in trading against most majors today.

The U.S. dollar has been losing ground today in the forex market as the American currency has declined against most of the major currencies. The euro has increased against the dollar as the EUR/USD trades at 1.2781 in the U.S. morning session at 10:18 am ET from its 1.2620 opening this morning at 00:00GMT. The pound has advanced against the dollar to trading at 1.5216 from the 1.4946 level at its opening. The dollar has declined verse the Swiss franc as the USD/CHF has fallen from its 1.2049 opening to trading at 1.1982 while against the Canadian dollar the USD has fallen to trading at 1.2315. The Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar have both increased against the dollar and have advanced to the exchange rates of 0.6564 and 0.5538, respectively. The dollar, meanwhile, has advanced slightly agains the Japanese yen today as the USD/JPY trades at 96.79 after opening the day at 96.53 yen per dollar.

GBP/USD Chart - The British Pound advancing today against the US Dollar(Hourly Chart).

Today's Forex & Currency Trading Chart

tags: consumer prices, housing data, forex market, usd trading

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