U.S. Housing Starts, Building Permits fall, Jobless claims rise. USD mixed in Forex Trading. | CountingPips Forex Blog

January 22, 2009 - Forex Economic News

U.S. Housing Starts, Building Permits fall, Jobless claims rise. USD mixed in Forex Trading.

U.S. housing starts, building permits and housing completions declined in the month of December according to data released by the Commerce Department on new residential construction. Housing Starts fell by 15.5 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 550,000 starts compared to November. December's total is down by a notable 45.0 percent from December 2007. Single-family housing starts fell by 13.5 percent compared to November.

Building permits statistics, used as a predictor of future construction, showed a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 549,000 permits in December which is a decrease of 10.7 percent compared to November. December's permits have seen a 50.6 percent drop from December of 2007. Single-family permits totaled 363,000 which was 12.3 percent less than November's permit totals.

Housing Completions for December also decreased when compared to November as completions fell to an annual rate of 1,015,000 privately-owned housing completions. This is a decrease of 5.2 percent when from November's completion totals and 23.6 percent below the December 2007 level. Single family housing completions fell in December by 13.1 percent from November.

Initial weekly jobless claims increase.

A separate government release by the U.S. Labor Department showed that weekly U.S. jobless claims advanced in the week that ended on January 17th. Jobless claims increased by 62,000 workers to a total of 589,000 unemployed workers. A 4-week moving average of unemployed workers was unchanged from the prior week at the level of 519,250 workers. Meanwhile, workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending January 10th increased by 97,000 workers and a four week moving average of continuing claims grew by 58,750 workers to a total of 4,559,750.

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 against the euro, New Zealand dollar, Japanese yen and British pound while losing ground against the Swiss franc and Canadian dollar.

The euro has declined versus the dollar from today's 1.3038 opening at 00:00GMT to trading at approximately 1.2992 in the afternoon of the US trading session at 2:19pm EST. The British pound has decreased today versus the dollar as the GBP/USD has gone from its 1.3954 opening to trading at 1.3871 in the afternoon.

The dollar has also been rising against the Japanese yen today as the USD/JPY has advanced from its 89.07 opening to trading at 89.25 later today. Against the Swiss franc, the USD has been falling today after gaining for the past three days as the USD/CHF has declined from its 1.1571 opening to trading at 1.1557.

The dollar has declined against the Canadian dollar after opening at 1.2585 earlier today to trading later at 1.2556 in the US afternoon. The New Zealand dollar has declined versus the US dollar after opening at 0.5305 today but is making a comeback as the NZD/USD currently trades at 0.5295. The Australian dollar is virtually unchanged versus the USD with the AUD/USD trading at 0.6584 after opening today at 0.6590.

GBP/USD Chart - The British Pound falling today against the US Dollar and trading further under the 21 day simple moving average. (Daily Chart).

Today's Forex Chart

tags: housing starts, building permits, jobless claims, usd, forex trading

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