By CountingPips.com
Economic news out of the U.S. today showed that new orders for durable goods increased by more than expected in the month of January. Durable goods orders in the United States rose by 3.0 percent in January to a total of $175.7 billion following December’s revised 1.9 percent gain, according to the report released by the U.S. Commerce Department today. January’s advance marked the second 
consecutive month of increases after October and November registered declines.
Market forecasts had been expecting that durable goods orders would increase by approximately 1.5 percent for the month. Durable goods are products manufactured in the U.S. and considered to last more than three years.
New orders for durable goods excluding transportation decreased by 0.6 percent in January following a revised increase of 2.0 percent in December. This data was worse than the market forecasts which were predicting an increase of 1.0 percent for durables minus transportation for the month.
January’s results for shipments of durable goods decreased by 0.2 percent after gaining for four straight months. Unfilled orders increased by 0.1 percent after falling for fifteen straight months while durable good inventories decreased 0.1 percent for the thirteenth consecutive month. January non-defense orders for new goods rose by 4.7 percent while defense orders for capital goods increased by 19.2 percent.
Weekly Jobless Claims rise by 22,000.
A separate government release by the U.S. Labor Department showed that weekly U.S. jobless claims increased in the week that ended on February 20th. New jobless claims climbed to a total of 496,000,000 unemployed workers, an increase over the prior week by 22,000 workers. This gain of jobless claims was more than expected as market forecasts predicted a fall to 465,000 jobless claims. A 4-week moving average of unemployed workers declined by 6,000 from the prior week to a total of 473,750.
Meanwhile, workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending February 13th also increased for the week. Continuing claims rose by 6,000 workers to a total of 4,617,000 unemployed workers. A four week moving average of continuing claims edged up by 4,250 to 4,600,750.
US Dollar trades higher in Forex.
The U.S. dollar has been mostly stronger in forex trading today against the other major currencies on investor risk aversion. The dollar has advanced today versus the British pound, Canadian dollar, New Zealand dollar and the Australian dollar while falling against the Japanese yen, according to currency data by Oanda as of 2:29 pm EST.
Against the euro and the Swiss franc, the American currency is trading virtually unchanged from today’s opening rate after registering gains that have been pared by this afternoon. The euro had fallen versus the dollar to the 1.3452 exchange rate earlier today from the 1.3542 opening rate before an afternoon surge that has brought the EUR/USD pair to back to the 1.3541 level.
The U.S. stock markets, meanwhile, are declining today with the Dow Jones following by approximately 90 points, the Nasdaq decreasing over 10 points and the S&P 500 down by almost 7 points so far. Oil has fallen by $1.94 to $78.06 while gold has gained by $11.30 to trade at the $1,107.80 per ounce level.
USD/JPY 1-Hour Chart – The US Dollar falling today in forex trading versus the Japanese Yen by over 100 pips on trader risk aversion. The USD/JPY fell under the 89.00 level for the first time since February 5th and is down by over 200 pips since Sunday after gaining last week.
