By CountingPips.com
The U.S. dollar has been mixed in forex market trading today against the other major currencies while the American stock markets have fallen for a second consecutive day. The dollar has gained ground versus the euro, Australian dollar, British pound, Japanese yen, and 
New Zealand dollar while losing ground against the Swiss franc and Canadian dollar in forex trading action. Yesterday, the US dollar was stronger almost across the board on risk aversion following the Federal Reserve’s comments that the economic recovery has slowed.
The U.S. stock markets, meanwhile, have had a negative day so far with the Dow declining by approximately 50 points, the Nasdaq decreasing by over 15 points while the S&P 500 is down by over 5 points at time of writing. Oil has moved lower by $1.57 to $76.45 per barrel while gold has surged higher by $15.80 to trade at the $1,213.30 per ounce level.
Today’s economic news schedule was light with weekly jobless claims making up the only major US release today. Jobless claims increased unexpectedly in the week that ended on August 7th, according to data by the U.S. Labor Department. New jobless claims rose by 2,000 workers to a total of 484,000 unemployed workers while the 4-week moving average of unemployed workers increased by 14,250 workers from the previous week to a total of 473,500.
Market forecasts were expecting jobless claims to fall to 465,000 workers following the prior week’s 482,000 number of claims.
Workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending July 31st decreased for the week by 118,000 workers to a total of 4,452,000 unemployed workers. The four week moving average of continuing claims dropped by 64,500 workers to a total of 4,518,500.
FOREX: EUR/USD Daily Chart – The Euro trading lower against the US Dollar in forex trading after hitting its highest exchange rate in almost three months last week. The EUR/USD fell to its lowest level since July 22nd today and is on its way to be declining for the week after six straight gaining weeks. Today’s decline bounced off the 50.0 percent fibonacci level near the 1.2780 exchange rate (on the decline from April 12th at the 1.3691 to June 7th low at 1.1876) and just above the rising trendline that started on June 7th low.
