By CountingPips.com
The U.S. dollar has been mixed in trading in the forex markets following today’s trade deficit and jobless claims numbers while the American stock markets are slightly lower. The dollar has gained ground versus the euro, Japanese yen, Swiss franc and the Australian dollar in today’s trading action while declining against the New Zealand dollar, British pound 
sterling and the Canadian dollar, according to currency data by Oanda just after noon in the US trading session.
The euro is going on its third straight day of declines against the American currency as the EUR/USD pair trades near the 1.3726 exchange rate after a 1.3769 open and down from the opening exchange rate of the week at 1.4031.
The dollar has surged higher against the Japanese yen for second consecutive day as the USD/JPY trades around the 82.55 exchange rate which is almost exactly 200 pips higher than Tuesday’s low point.
The U.S. stock markets, meanwhile, are slightly lower today with the Dow Jones falling by approximately 20 points, the Nasdaq up by approximately 2 points and the S&P 500 down by just around 2 points.
Oil has traded higher by $1.25 to $87.97 per barrel while gold has dropped sharply by $25.40 to the $1384.40 per ounce level.
US trade deficit edged lower in September
The United States trade deficit decreased by more than expected in September, according to a release by the Commerce Department today. The U.S. trade deficit declined by $2.5 billion as the deficit leveled at $44.0 billion in September following a revised deficit of $46.5 billion in August.
The data surpassed market forecasts that were expecting a deficit of approximately $45.0 billion for the month.
The U.S. had a total of $154.1 billion worth of exports in September which was an increase of $0.5 billion from August’s total. September saw a decrease in imports with a total of $198.1 billion worth of imports compared with $200.1 billion in August for a decline of $2.0 billion.
The politically sensitive U.S. trade deficit with China was almost unchanged in September with a $27.8 billion shortfall after a deficit of $28.0 billion in August. Other notable U.S. trade deficits were the deficits with the European Union at $6.1 billion, Mexico at $5.8 billion, Japan at $5.0 billion and OPEC at $8.9 billion.
The U.S. trade surpluses with other countries for September included Hong Kong at $2.3 billion, Singapore at $0.7 billion, Australia at $1.2 billion and Egypt at $0.6 billion.
Weekly Jobless Claims fall by 24,000.
A separate government release by the U.S. Labor Department showed that weekly U.S. jobless claims decreased in the week that ended on November 6th. New jobless claims decreased to a total of 435,000 unemployed workers, a decline over the prior week by 24,000 workers. This decline in jobless claims was more than expected as market forecasts predicted a fall to 450,000 jobless claims. The 4-week moving average of unemployed workers fell by 10,000 from the prior week to a total of 446,500.
Meanwhile, workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending October 30th also decreased for the week. Continuing claims declined by 86,000 workers to a total of 4,301,000 unemployed workers. The four week moving average of continuing claims fell by 35,750 to 4,388,250.
