By CountingPips.com
The US dollar has been mixed in forex trading today against most of the major currencies in afternoon of the the US session. The dollar has gained some ground today versus the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc while losing ground to the Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, and the Canadian dollar, according currency data by Oanda. 
The American currency is currently trading virtually unchanged against the euro and the British pound sterling from today’s opening rate at time of writing.
The US stock markets have had a winning session today with the Dow gaining by over 50 points, the Nasdaq increasing more than 15 points and the S&P 500 up by nearly 5 points.
In commodities, Oil traded slightly higher to $104.41 per barrel while gold futures are about unchanged at ounce.
Economic news out of the US today saw the latest consumer confidence report showed that confidence fell in March to a 63.4 score following a score of 72.0 in February, according to the latest survey by the Conference Board. The data was worse than market forecasts that were expecting the consumer confidence score to fall to 65.4. The decline breaks up five consecutive months of increases and reflected consumer worries over higher prices, including gas and food.
Economic news releases out of Europe today showed that the latest GDP report from the UK fell by 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. The data was slightly better than economic forecasts that were expecting the GDP to decline by 0.6 percent. On an annual basis, the fourth quarter GDP was 1.5 percent higher than the fourth quarter of 2009.
Also out of the UK was news that the current-account deficit reached 10.5 billion pounds in the fourth quarter of 2010 from an 8.7 billion pound deficit in the third quarter.
