By CountingPips.com
The U.S. dollar was mostly lower in forex trading today against the other major currencies and the U.S. stock markets fell for the third straight day. The dollar gained today versus the British pound and Canadian dollar while falling against the euro, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar at 4:41 pm EDT according to currency data by Oanda.
Overall for the week, the dollar was also mixed against the majors. The American currency gained slightly against the euro despite falling to new yearly lows on Wednesday around 1.4844 before the USD pushed back late Wednesday and Thursday. The dollar also gained ground this week versus the British pound and Canadian dollar while falling to the franc, aussie, kiwi and yen.
The U.S. stock markets fell again today with the Dow Jones falling by 42.25 points, the Nasdaq decreasing 16.69 points and the S&P 500 down by 6.40 points. Oil edged up by $0.18 to $66.07 while gold lost $7.30 to stay under the $1000 per ounce level at $990.20.
U.S. economic releases today showed that two out the three releases were positive.
First up, consumer confidence beat forecasts and rose in September to its highest level since January 2008. The University of Michigan/Reuters survey registered a 73.5 score in the final September report after this month’s preliminary report had scored 70.2, the level where forecasters were expecting the data to come in. The index of consumer expectations also increased to a score of 73.5 while the index of current conditions increased to 73.4 after scoring 66.6 in August.
Durable goods fall after last month’s gain.
Durable goods orders fell in August after gaining by the largest amount in two years in July according to a report released by the U.S. Commerce Department today. Durable goods orders declined by 2.4 percent in August to a total of $164.4 billion after surging by a revised 4.8 percent in July. Today’s data was worse than the market forecasts that had been expecting that durable goods orders would increase by approximately 0.1 percent for the month.
New orders for durable goods excluding transportation showed no change in August following a revised increase of 0.9 percent in July. Market forecasts were predicting an increase of 0.8 percent in durable goods minus transportation.
Shipments of durable goods were down in August by 1.4 percent while unfilled orders fell 0.4 percent and inventories decreased by 1.3 percent. August nondefense orders for new goods declined by 7.1 percent while defense orders for capital goods rose by 1.1 percent.
U.S. New Home Sales increase in August.
New Home Sales in the United States increased for the fifth straight month according to data released by the Department of Commerce today. Purchases of new single family homes rose to an annual rate of 426,000 in August and made a 0.7 percent advancement following July’s 6.5 percent revised gain. August’s annual rate of new homes sold, despite the increase, is still 3.4 percent lower than the August 2008 level. August’s results failed to match market forecasts which were expecting a 1.6 percent increase in sales for an annual rate of 440,000 new homes sold.
Contributing to the decrease in August was a 16.3 percent decrease in new homes sold in the Northeast while the Midwest saw a 5.8 percent decline. The West sales rose by 12.1 percent while the South saw no change in August from July.
