By CountingPips.com
The U.S. Leading Indicators Index published by the Conference Board today increased for the eighth straight month in November. The Leading Indicator Index, which measures future economic activity, registered a 0.9 percent increase in November following a revised increase of 0.3 percent in October and a 
1.2 percent gain in September. November’s increase surpassed the market forecasts which were predicting a gain of 0.7 percent for the month.
The coincident index, which is viewed as a measure of the current economic activity, increased by 0.2 percent in November while the lagging index edged down by 0.4 percent after declining by 0.2 percent in October.
An economist at the Conference Board, Ken Goldstein commented on the report saying, “The indicators point to a bright new year. The U.S. LEI increased for the eighth consecutive month. Looking ahead, we can expect a slowly improving economy through 2010. The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index™ (CEI) for the U.S. also increased in November. Employment largely held steady, making this the first month since December 2007 that it did not make a negative contribution to the index.”
Weekly Jobless Claims rise.
A release by the U.S. Labor Department showed that weekly U.S. jobless claims increased in the week that ended on December 12th. New jobless claims grew to a total of 480,000 unemployed workers, an increase over the prior week by 7,000 workers. A 4-week moving average of unemployed workers fell by 5,250 workers from the prior week to a total of 467,500.
Meanwhile, workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending December 5th increased by 5,000 workers to a total of 5,186,000 unemployed workers. A four week moving average of continuing claims declined by 106,750 to 5,318,250.
US Dollar higher in Forex Trading today.
The U.S. dollar has been trading higher today against the other major currencies in the spot forex market. The dollar has been stronger versus the euro, British pound, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc, New Zealand dollar and the Japanese yen in the afternoon of the U.S. session at 3:06pm according to currency data by Oanda.
Meanwhile, the U.S. stock markets have been lower in trading today with the Dow Jones having gained by lost over 90 points while the Nasdaq has been down by around 20 points. The S&P500 has fallen by almost 9.50 points to trade around the 1,099.30 level at time of writing. Gold has declined today by approximately $32.40 to trading around the $1,103.10 per ounce level while oil has been about unchanged to trade at $72.65 per barrel.
AUD/USD Hourly Chart – The Australian Dollar falling today versus the US Dollar in forex trading. The AUD/USD has declined three days in a row and the downtrend has broken through the psychological level at 0.9000, continuing its decline into the 0.8870 area.
