Durable goods down, jobless up makes markets reel
Markets were left low on confidence today (October 25th) as data on durable goods and unemployment asked questions about how deep US economic troubles would run.
The commerce department registered a monthly decline in durable goods orders for the second month running, with a 1.7 per cent fall in September orders confounding analysts who had forecasted a 1.1 per cent increase.
Meanwhile, a poll of economists from Reuters showed that new home sales in the US probably fell again in September, with figures suggesting that lenders were reacting strongly to the sub-prime crisis and the constraints of the credit crunch.
Some gains were seen on the Dow Jones today, after positive reports of a rosier outlook than expected for Motorola and others in the fourth quarter, but worries over the new data still remained.
Analysts at Action Economics told Dow Jones Newswires: "Equities remained focused on better earnings reports, though dented by the weaker-than-expected round of durables and jobless-claims data."
With gold prices rising again today, the worrying round of economic data could signal the beginning of another bull run for the gold market.