By CountingPips.com
The U.S. dollar has been on the defensive in forex trading against the other major currencies today as risk appetite has flowed in the financial markets today. The positive investor sentiment has pushed the U.S. stock markets and crude oil higher while gold, the dollar and the Japanese yen have fallen lower. The dollar has declined versus the euro, Swiss franc, British pound, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar while trading almost unchanged against 
the Japanese Yen, according to currency data by Oanda near the end of the U.S. trading session.
The euro increased to its highest level since last week against the dollar and has ascended over the 1.2100 exchange rate while the pound, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar have also traded at their highest levels since last week. The Canadian dollar and Swiss franc both reached their best levels versus the dollar since May 18th in today’s trading action.
The U.S. stock markets, meanwhile, advanced sharply higher today with the Dow Jones ending the day up by approximately 273 points, the Nasdaq increasing about 60 points and the S&P 500 up by over 31 points. Oil rose by $1.40 to $75.78 per barrel while gold has fallen lower by $11.80 to trade at the $1,216.70 per ounce level.
Economic News: US Trade Deficit pushes higher
The United States trade deficit increased to its highest level since December 2008 in April, according to a release by the Commerce Department today. The U.S. trade deficit rose by 0.6 percent as the deficit registered $40.3 billion in April following a revised deficit of $40.0 billion in March. Market forecasts were expecting the deficit to rise to approximately $41.0 billion for the month.
The U.S. had a total of $148.8 billion worth of exports in April which was a decrease of $1.0 billion from March’s total while April imports edged lower by $0.8 billion to a total of $189.1 billion worth of imports.
The politically sensitive U.S. trade deficit with China increased to $19.3 billion from a deficit of $16.9 billion in March. Other notable U.S. trade deficits were with the European Union at a $5.7 billion, Japan at $4.8 billion, Mexico at $5.3 billion, OPEC at $9.3 billion and Germany at $3.0 billion.
U.S. trade surpluses with other countries included Australia at $1.2 billion, Hong Kong at $1.7 billion, Belgium at $1.0 billion.
Weekly Jobless Claims dip
U.S. weekly jobless claims decreased in the week that ended on June 5th, according to a release by the U.S. Labor Department today. New jobless claims fell by 3,000 workers to a total of 456,000 unemployed workers for the week while the 4-week moving average of unemployed workers increased by 2,500 workers from the previous week to a total of 463,000.
Market forecasts were expecting jobless claims to edge down to 450,000 workers following the prior week’s revised 474,000 claims.
Meanwhile, workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending May 29th also decreased for the week. Continuing claims fell by 255,000 workers to a total of 4,462,000 unemployed workers. The four week moving average of continuing claims dropped by 49,250 workers to a total of 4,617,500.
