Orders for durable, or long-lasting, goods fell 5.1% in December, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The drop came after a 12.4% plunge in transportation orders and was worse than the 1.5% forecasted decline in the headline. Excluding transportation, orders fell 1.2% in December. So-called core capital-goods orders fell 4.3%.
Separate report showed that in the week ending January 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 278,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week's revised level. Analysts were expecting decrease to 281,000. The 4-week moving average was 283,000, a decrease of 2,250 from the previous week's revised average.
Euro is currently being traded few points above 1.0950 level, Sterling is around 1.4350 handle, while Aussie is around 0.7080 area.