Hardly any major readings are scheduled for the period between Christmas and New Year. Moreover, the US housing market data (new home sales) that was due today was delayed on the back of the government shutdown. Nevertheless, some semi-important readings from the US economy were released earlier today.
Source: Macrobond, XTB Research
The US jobless claims data was published at 1:30 pm GMT and it came more or less in line with estimates. Initial jobless claims for the week ending 22 December came in at 216k, just as it was forecasted by economists surveyed by Bloomberg agency. The prior reading of 214k was revised higher to 217k and in turn we saw a modest drop in comparison to previous drop. Continuing claims reached 1701k, way above 1675k expected by the markets. However, one should keep in mind that the previous reading was revised higher from 1688k to 1705k therefore in this case we also experience a small decline. Half an hour later data concerning house prices was released and it showed 0.3% MoM advance (as expected).
Unsurprisingly EURUSD hardly moved on the US data release. The main currency pair is pushing higher on Thursday and even managed to test the 1.14 handle earlier. However, bulls failed to hold this gain and the pair is trading slightly below the aforementioned level. Source: xStation5
