A government release by the U.S. Labor Department today showed today that U.S. weekly continuing claims for unemployment benefits increased to the highest level on record since the report began in 1967. Unemployment continuing claims grew by 170,000 workers to a total of 4,987,000 unemployed workers for the week ending on February 7th. A four week moving average of continuing claims grew by 92,500 to 4,747,000.
New weekly U.S. jobless claims held steady in the week that ended on February 14th. New jobless claims grew to a total of 627,000 unemployed workers and matched the revised total from the week before. A 4-week moving average of unemployed workers rose by 10,500 from the prior week to a total of 619,000.
Producer Prices gain in January.
Other news released today showed that US Producer Prices increased by 0.8 percent in January after decreasing for five straight months according to a release by Department of Labor. Forecasts were expecting producer prices to increase by only 0.2 percent for the month following December’s 1.9 percent decline. On an annual basis, producer prices are down by 1.0 percent compared to January 2008. Core producer prices, excluding food and energy prices, grew by 0.4 percent in January following a 0.2 percent increase in December. On an annual basis, core prices have gained by 4.2 percent over the January 2008 level. Forecasts were expecting the core prices to increase by only 0.1 percent in January following December’s 0.2 percent gain.
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 Canadian dollar, Japanese yen and New Zealand dollar while falling against the euro, Australian dollar, British pound and trading virtually unchanged against the Swiss franc.
The euro has advanced versus the dollar for the first time this week as the EUR/USD has gone from today’s 1.2583 opening exchange rate at 00:00 GMT to trading at approximately 1.2669 in the US trading session at 4:48pm EST.
The British pound has increased today versus the American currency from 1.4270 to trading at 1.4286 dollars per pound. The dollar has advanced against the Japanese yen today as the USD/JPY has gained from its 93.47 opening to trading at 94.22.
The dollar has also gained against the Canadian dollar after opening at 1.2561 earlier today to trading at 1.2584 later. Meanwhile, the USD is virtually unchanged against the Swiss franc from 1.1733 to trading at 1.1739.
The Australian dollar has also traded almost unchanged versus the USD as the AUD/USD trades at 0.6432 after opening today at 0.6430 while the New Zealand dollar has fallen versus the USD and trades at 0.5121 after opening at 0.5094.
EUR/USD Chart – The Euro advancing against the US Dollar today in Forex Trading after declining everyday this week.
