Australian dollar up on mixed signals from US

The Australian dollar has bounced strongly back towards the US86.00 cents level after mixed signals out of the US and strong local housing data boosted the local currency. At 5.54pm (AEDT) the Aussie dollar was trading at US85.86 cents up from US85.47 cents at yesterdays close.

Orders for durable goods which are products designed to last at least three years rose by 0.4% in October from a month earlier reversing a -0.6% drop in September which is positive although a big part was connected to military spending.

Initial jobless claims came in at 313,000, the highest since early September and up from 292,000 in the previous period according to the labor department.

“It’s particularly difficult to adjust the data during the holiday season” noted Thomas Simons, an economist at Jefferies LLC in New York.

He also mentioned “Variant winter weather, the floating timing of the Thanksgiving holiday, and preparations for the holiday-shopping season that differ from prior years tend to make historical comparisons difficult,” “Volatility will probably continue to be elevated until the end of the year, but we expect that claims will drift lower again.”

Most analysts predict this latest disappointing number is only a glitch in an otherwise robust US jobs market and expect a rebound as we head into the run up to Christmas.

Sales of new homes in Australia rose in October to their highest level in four months despite talk of a developing bubble in the housing market .The Housing Industry Association reported that sales of new homes climbed 3% October, up from 0% the previous month.