US Trade deficit increases in July. Jobless claims dip. Dollar mixed in Forex Trading. | CountingPips Forex Blog

September 11, 2008 - Forex Economic News

US Trade deficit increases in July. Jobless claims dip. Dollar mixed in Forex Trading.

The United States trade deficit grew more than expected in July according to a release by the Commerce Department today. The U.S. trade deficit grew to its highest level in 16 months to $62.2 billion in July and follows a revised deficit of $58.8 billion in June. Market forecasts were expecting a deficit of approximately $58.0 billion for the month. The U.S. had a total of $168.1 billion worth of exports in July which was an increase of $5.4 billion over US Trade deficit grows - dollar mixed in forex. June's total. July saw a substantial rise in imports as it totaled $230.3 billion worth of imports compared with $222.6 billion in June for an increase of $8.7 billion for the month. Contributing to the higher trade deficit in July was an increase in imports of crude oil which totaled $42.64 billion after amounting to $34.85 billion in July.

A separate government release by the U.S. Labor Department showed that weekly U.S. jobless claims declined in the week that ended on September 6th. Jobless claims fell by 6,000 workers to a total of 445,000 unemployed workers. A 4-week moving average of unemployed workers rose by 250 from the prior week to 440,000. Meanwhile, workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending August 30th increased by 122,000 workers while a four week moving average of continuing claims grew by 36,750 to 3,429,000.

US dollar mixed in Forex Trading.

The U.S. dollar has been mixed in forex trading against the major currencies today. The dollar has gained slightly verses the euro today as the EUR/USD pair has declined from today's opening exchange rate of approximately 1.3952 to trading at 1.3946 in the U.S. afternoon trading session. The British pound against the dollar is virtually unchanged from today's opening and trading at approximately 1.7526 dollars per pound. The dollar has fallen verses the Japanese yen in trading from the day's opening rate of 107.42 yen per dollar to trading at 106.73 today. Elsewhere, the dollar has lost ground to the Australian dollar at 0.8003 and the New Zealand dollar at 0.6514 while the "buck" has gained ground verses the Canadian dollar at 1.0777 and the Swiss franc at 1.1386 in today's forex market.

USD/CHF Chart - The US dollar gains vs. the Swiss franc today in forex trading despite a larger than expected US trade deficit(Daily Chart).

Forex Chart

tags: us trade balance, usd, forex trading, jobless claims, unemployment

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