By CountingPips.com
The U.S. dollar has been trading lower in the forex markets on a day with little U.S. economic data released while the American stock markets have advanced higher in the early going today. The dollar has fallen versus the euro, Swiss franc, Australian dollar, British pound, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar and New Zealand dollar in the morning of the US trading session after ending yesterday mixed.
The U.S. stock markets, meanwhile, have had a positive start today with the Dow gaining around 50 points, the Nasdaq increasing by over 6 points while the S&P 500 is up by over 5 points at time of writing. Oil has moved higher by $1.20 to $78.19 per barrel while gold has also edged up by $2.40 to trade at the $1,162.80 per ounce level.
Weekly Jobless Claims fall by 11,000
U.S. weekly jobless claims decreased by more than expected in the week that ended on July 24th, according to a release by the U.S. Labor Department today. New jobless claims fell by 11,000 workers to a total of 457,000 unemployed workers, marking the third decrease in claims in the past four weeks. The 4-week moving average of unemployed workers decreased by 4,500 workers from the previous week to a total of 452,500.
Market forecasts were expecting jobless claims to edge down to 459,000 workers following the prior week’s 468,000 revised number of claims.
Meanwhile, workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending July 17th increased for the week. Continuing claims rose by 81,000 workers to a total of 4,565,000 unemployed workers. The four week moving average of continuing claims dropped by 18,000 workers to a total of 4,548,250.
FOREX: EUR/USD Hourly Chart – The Euro continues to fly high against the US Dollar in forex trading and today hit its highest exchange rate in almost three months. The EUR/USD advanced to a high of 1.3105 in today’s trading, reaching this level for the first time since May 4th when the pair was in the midst of its rapid decline that bottomed on June 7th at the 1.1875 exchange rate. The EUR/USD pair is now on its way this week to gaining for a fifth consecutive week and for the seventh out of the last eight weeks.
