By CountingPips.com
The U.S. dollar has been mixed in forex trading against the other major currencies while U.S. stocks have been on the defensive so far today. The dollar has made gains today versus the Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and the Canadian dollar while falling against the euro, Swiss franc and the Japanese yen. The American currency is trading 
almost unchanged versus the British pound at time of writing.
The U.S. stock markets have been negative so far today with the Dow Jones decreasing by over 100 points, the Nasdaq down by about 25 point and the S&P 500 lower by over 10 points in the afternoon in the U.S. trading session. Oil is almost unchanged at the $76.19 level while gold has risen by $13.90 to the $1,248.00 per ounce level.
Economic news out of the U.S. today showed that durable goods orders declined less than forecast and reversed five straight months of gains in May. Durable goods orders in the United States fell 1.1 percent in May to a total of $192.0 billion, according to the report released by the U.S. Commerce Department. May’s total was $2.2 billion less than April’s total which registered a revised increase of 3.0 percent from March. Durable goods are products manufactured in the U.S. and generally considered to last more than three years.
The market forecasts had been expecting that durable goods orders would decrease by approximately 1.2 percent for the month.
New orders for durable goods excluding transportation rose by 0.9 percent in May following a revised decrease of 0.8 percent in April. Market forecasts were predicting an increase of 1.1 percent.
May’s results for shipments of durable goods decreased by 0.4 percent after two straight monthly increases. Unfilled orders rose by 0.2 percent in the month while durable good inventories increased 0.8 percent and gained for a fifth month. May non-defense orders for new goods fell by 2.8 percent while defense orders for capital goods also fell by 3.0 percent.
Weekly Jobless Claims fall.
A separate government release by the U.S. Labor Department showed that weekly U.S. jobless claims decreased in the week that ended on June 19th. New jobless claims fell to a total of 457,000 unemployed workers, a decrease over the prior week by 19,000 workers. A 4-week moving average of unemployed workers fell by 24,250 from the previous week to a total of 462,750.
Meanwhile, workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending June 12th also declined. Continuing claims dropped by 45,000 workers to a total of 4,548,000 unemployed workers. A four week moving average of continuing claims fell by 21,750 to 4,586,500.
