In the week ended January 3, initial claims dropped by 24 000 from a downwardly revised 491 000 to 467 000, while the consensus was looking for an outcome of 545 000. Continuing claims , on the contrary, rose from an upwardly revised 4 510 000 to 4 611 000, while a decline was expected. The unexpected drop in initial claims might be due to New Year and many unemployment offices may have been closed or short-staffed on the Friday after New Year. Continuing claims, which are now at the highest

Today's tickers: WMT, SHLD, WFC, SGR, ELN & SAP WMT – WalMart Stores Inc. – investors are likely asking at what cost WalMart managed to make itself look successful over the holiday season as it today slashed earnings forecasts for the year. The move was industry wide as consumers keep their pocket books firmly shut. The revelation sent its shares lower by 7.7% by lunchtime to $51.30, but option traders didn't really seem to be betting on much larger declines. Rather it appeared that they

Previous session overview On Thursday, the dollar lost ground for a second straight day against many of its main rivals, including the euro and the yen, on worries about the U.S. job market and economic outlook. On Thursday morning, the EURUSD pair showed again an indecisive trading pattern. At the start of trading in Europe, the pair dropped from the 1.3650 area to the 1.3550 area. Sentiment changed as soon as US traders got involved. Growing investor nervousness gradually brought the dollar

- US Dollar Slips as Consumer Credit Falls By Record, Non-Farm Payrolls (NFPs) Expected to Fall By 500K or More - Euro Ends Day Just Below Key Resistance - Will Euro-zone Retail Sales Weigh on Friday? - British Pound Surges Following Bank of England's Rate Cut - Why? - Canadian Dollar Could Pull Back on Friday US Dollar Slips as Consumer Credit Falls By Record, Non-Farm Payrolls (NFPs) Expected to Fall By 500K or More The US dollar fell versus most of the major currencies on Thursday, save the

Jan. 9, 2009 (Allthingsforex.com) – With the U.S. Retail Sales and a sequence of Consumer Price Indexes scheduled for release from major industrialized nations, inflation and consumer spending will be the main themes of the week ahead. In preparation for the new trading week, here is a quick look at the most important economic events that every currency trader should pay attention to. Sunday, Jan. 11 will begin the trading session with the Australian Melbourne Institute Inflation Expectations

In overnight trading the US dollar saw some gains on the back of dismal eurozone data, touching a 3-week high, though following this morning’s release of initial claims for U.S. unemployment benefits the USD has tumbled to session lows against the euro. Initial unemployment claims fell to 467,000 in the week ended Jan. 3, from 491,000 the previous week, failing to ease concerns about rising U.S. unemployment. With a continued downward spiral expected on Wall Street this morning following

By now it must be clear to everyone that the U.S. economy is dependent upon DEBT, and we believe we have reached the debt limit!! It took the resurgence of the stock market bubble in 2003, just a few years after the late 1990s bubble, coupled with the housing bubble to get the private sector to feel wealthy or comfortable enough to generate the enormous debt relative to GDP that finally froze up the credit markets. As soon as the credit markets froze up earlier this year the economy came to a

WTI crude oil for February delivery plunged to as low as 40.54 after the US' poor jobless claims data. Although initial jobless claims increased by 467 K for the week ended Jan 3, better than market expected of +540K, the total number of people getting benefits rose to 4.6M, the highest level since 1982. Weak employment is an indication of economic contraction and demand reduction. The black gold futures then closed at 41.7. Today in Asian session, oil price trades narrowly around 42 level as

Overview The first NFP for '09 today, but given the ADP report from Wednesday, perhaps the surprise value has been taken away from today's data. If so, well we can expect the USD to remain capped, and the EUR to be well supported around 1.3580.  I said earlier in the week that the AUD was staying up stubbornly, but it now seems that the last of the buyers has been filled, and now the market looks like it will struggle to push the AUD above 0.7200 in coming weeks. The RBA is still

Tracking the 10-year Treasury Note Yield during Monetary Policy Tightening Episodes Monetary policy is not projected to take a hawkish stance for several months given the significantly weak status of the U.S. economy and fragile financial market situation. That said, the bond market, a forward looking entity, could change course rapidly. An imminent economic recovery, the extraordinary easing of monetary policy in place, a reduced foreign appetite for dollar denominated assets, and an

1/8/2009 3:30 PM: EUR/$..1.3690 $/JPY..91.18 GBP/$..1.5216 $/CHF..1.0941 AUD/$..0.7098 $/CAD..1.1796 USD Slumps Ahead of Payrolls The greenback remains under pressure in the Thursday session, tumbling to multi-week lows against the sterling at 1.5372 and falling toward the 1.38-handle versus the euro. Weekly jobless claims, released earlier in the session improved to 467k, beating consensus estimates for an increase to 540k, from a week earlier at 492k. The key highlight will be Friday’s

EURO The euro moved higher vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar today as the single currency tested offers around the US$ 1.3800 figure and was supported around the $1.3535 level.  The U.S. dollar continues to suffer as a result of the ongoing global economic pullback and traders will pay close attention to remarks on additional U.S. economic stimulus possibilities from incoming U.S. President Obama around 1600 GMT today.  Data released in the U.S. today saw weekly initial jobless claims fall

The US dollar is selling off aggressively ahead of Friday's non-farm payrolls report on the fear that for the second month in a row, job losses may have topped 500k. The recent moves in the currency and equity markets suggest that everyone expects a very weak labor market report. Although the consensus forecast is -520k, the whisper number is closer to -650k to -700k. Sentiment is strongly skewed in one direction which can be dangerous considering the fact that some of the leading indicators

Forex traders, join the daily All Things Forex broadcast- a live one hour program covering Forex and major economic events, trend developments, research, analysis, ideas, education, live traders forum, interviews with some of the most respected names in the trading world, and much more.. In the broadcast today: The USD Ahead of the Non-Farm Payrolls. We take a close look at the USD ahead of the Non-Farm Payrolls and Employment Situation report tomorrow, we analyze the market's reaction to the

- US equity indices opened in the red this morning and fell further in early trading, pushed down by December same-store sales results and yet another round of profit warnings from corporate America. But while there has been plenty of bad news to go around, investors are shrugging off the gloom and pushing equity indices back toward positive territory in mid morning trade. Front-month crude has fallen sharply off the elevated levels of the last several sessions, down more than a buck around

Overview: German new manufacturing orders dropped 6.0% m/m in November, almost repeating the terri-fying 6.3% m/m collapse in October (revised from 6.1% m/m). On a yearly basis orders are now 24% below the level in November 2007. This spells trouble not only for Germany but also for the rest of Europe. We haven't seen anything this dramatic in German orders since the series began in 1962; the closest being the decline seen in 1993 and around New Year 1973/74, when orders dropped approximately

Key News • South African Manufacturing Drops Most in Nine Years (Bloomberg) • Obama Warns of Irreversible Economic Decline Without Action (Bloomberg) • Buiter Says BOE Must Stoke Lending, Rate Cut Not Enough (Bloomberg) Quotable “Roosevelt did not come into office with a detailed program based on a firm ideological foundation. Rather, he saw himself as a pragmatist ready to try anything, an approach that engendered stultifying uncertainty. First, he mandated anticompetitive

Gold Slips Again as Global Stocks Tumble Despite New Historic Low for Interest Rates, Huge Inflation-Risk in Record Government Debts SPOT GOLD PRICES held in a tight $5 range early in London on Thursday, recording an AM Gold Fix fully 2.5% below yesterday morning at $842.50 per ounce. Global stock markets also added to Wednesday's sharp losses, despite a record-low cut to interest rates from the Bank of England – the world's fourth-largest central bank. The Tokyo Nikkei fell nearly 4%. London

Market Brief The Usd was stronger in the Asian session, halting its recent decline on the back of increased risk aversion. The combination of a larger than expected fall in ADP survey, weaker equity markets and 2% rises in oil inventory, which put pressure on commodity prices, dampened optimism and sent investors back into safe haven trades. The EurUsd traded from 1.3680 to 1.3540, while UsdJpy dropped sharply from 92.80 to 91.57. The UsdCad, which failed to close below the 1.1800 support,