Some sparks of positive data — we don’t say “green shoots anymore — are pushing the dollar lower today. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index fell 0.1% to 78.14 as the dollar slid against the Euro to $1.438, Bloomberg notes.
New orders rose in November by 0.2%, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of the Census reported this morning, or $300 million, which is less than the 0.5% observers were looking for. Still, it’s somewhat reassuring after October’s 0.6% decrease. Excluding transportation, and a major drop in aircraft orders, the month-over-month change was 2%, which was stronger than expected.
The U.S. Department of Labor this morning said first-time claims for unemployment dropped 28,000 last week from the prior week, to 452,000, which is a bigger drop than expected. Analysts had been modeling 470,000 new claims. You’ll recall, the week before, Dec. 11, initial claims had risen more than expected.
After yesterday’s bigger-than-expected petroleum drawdown reported by the Department of Energy, and the big jump in crude futures, oil’s more muted today. Light sweet crude futures for delivery in February rose 7 cents to $76.74 per barrel. Gold futures for delivery in January rose $8.60 to $1,101.9 per ounce.
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