US Durable Goods, New Home Sales fall. Jobless claims rise. USD mixed in Forex Trading. | CountingPips Forex Blog

January 29, 2009 - Forex Economic News

US Durable Goods, New Home Sales fall. Jobless claims rise. USD mixed in Forex Trading.

Economic news out of the U.S. today showed that durable goods orders declined more than forecasted and decreased for the fifth month in a row in December. Durable goods orders in the United States fell 2.6 percent in December to a total of $176.8 billion according to news released by the U.S. Commerce Department today. December's total was $4.7 billion less than USD mixed in Foex Trading November's total which had seen a revised decrease of 3.7 percent from October. Durable goods are products manufactured in the U.S. and considered to last more than three years. Market forecasts had been expecting that durable goods orders would decrease by approximately 2.0 percent for the month.

New orders for durable goods excluding transportation fell by 3.6 percent in December following a revised decrease of 1.7 percent in November. Market forecasts were predicting a decrease of 2.7 percent.

December's results for shipments of durable goods decreased by 0.7 percent and fell for the fifth straight month. Unfilled orders decreased 1.3 percent in the month while durable good inventories increased 0.4 percent from November which saw a 0.3 percent gain. December nondefense orders for new goods fell by 5.9 percent while defense orders for capital goods increased by 32.9 percent.

U.S. New Home Sales fall in December.

New Home Sales in the United States declined in the month of December to stand at the lowest level on record according to data released by the Department of Commerce today. Purchases of new single family homes fell to an annual rate of 331,000 in December, a 14.7 percent drop from November's rate of 388,000. December's annual rate of new homes sold is 44.8 percent lower than the that of December 2007 and marked the lowest annual sales rate since the beginning of the report first released in 1963.

December's results were worse than market forecasts were expecting as forecasts predicted an annual rate of 396,000 new sales and a monthly decline by 2.7 percent. The median sales price of new homes in December was $206,500 while the average sales price was $246,900.

Weekly Jobless Claims rise.

A separate government release by the U.S. Labor Department showed that weekly U.S. jobless claims increased in the week that ended on January 24th. New jobless claims grew to a total of 588,000 unemployed workers, an increase over the prior week by 3,000 workers. A 4-week moving average of unemployed workers rose by 24,250 from the prior week to a total of 542,500.

Meanwhile, workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending January 17th increased to the highest level on record since the report began in 1967. Continuing claims grew by 159,000 workers to a total of 4,617,000 unemployed workers. A four week moving average of continuing claims grew by 66,500 to 4,630,000.

US Dollar showing mixed results in forex trading.

The U.S. dollar has been mixed in forex trading today against the major currencies as the dollar has gained versus the euro, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, Japanese yen and New Zealand dollar while falling against the British pound and Swiss franc.

The euro has declined versus the dollar as the EUR/USD has fallen from today's 1.3122 opening exchange rate at 00:00 GMT to trading at approximately 1.2964 in the US trading session at 4:02pm EST.

The British pound has increased today versus the American currency from 1.4157 to trading at 1.4311 dollars per pound. The dollar has advanced against the Japanese yen today as the USD/JPY has gained from its 89.70 opening to trading at 89.88.

The dollar has also gained against the Canadian dollar after opening at 1.2193 earlier today to trading at 1.2240 later. Meanwhile, the USD has declined against the Swiss franc from 1.1533 to trading at 1.1526. The Australian dollar has lost ground versus the USD as the AUD/USD trades at 0.6534 after opening today at 0.6601 while the New Zealand dollar has also fallen versus the USD and trades at 0.5130 after opening at 0.5185.

NZD/USD Chart - The New Zealand Kiwi falling for the second straight day today against the US Dollar(Hourly Chart).

Today's Forex Chart

tags: durable goods, new home sales, jobless claims, forex trading

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