In economic data today coming from the United States, the initial weekly jobless claims fell by 2000 to 328,000 for the week ended 11th January. This figure was just slightly above the consensus estimate which had all been pointing at a reading of around 325,000. Also released the same time were the secondary unemployment claims which jumped up by 174,000 to reach the total of 3,030,000.

So far this data seems to have had a negative effect on the US dollar, with most currency pairs led by the USD pushing sharply down around the time of data release. The euro versus the US dollar has been on small rising trend right from the release of this data, and currently sits with a high for today at around 1.3649.

The price of gold futures bounced significantly on the release of the data, and seems to be pushing up strongly into the US session. Although gold futures still have a way to go to reach the highs of early this week when XAU/USD was trading around the 1254.8 area.

Crude oil, on the other hand, seems to be consolidating around the 94.2 area after yesterday’s charge back to the highs of early January. On Wednesday crude oil futures rallied after the US government data displayed a reasonable size drop in crude supplies. Falling by a surprising 7.7 M barrels for the end of last week. A strong US manufacturing report also help boost the price yesterday, renewing a lot of hopes for the demand of crude oil.