By CountingPips.com
The US Dollar, fresh off yearly lows in yesterday’s trading, continued to slide in forex trading today against most of the major currencies. The dollar has lost ground to the euro, British pound, Australian dollar, Swiss franc, Japanese yen while trading higher versus the Canadian dollar and almost unchanged versus the New Zealand dollar 
at 4:03pm EDT according currency data by Oanda.
The stock markets had another positive session today with the Dow gaining by almost 50 points, the Nasdaq increasing over 22 points and the S&P 500 showing almost an 8 point gain. Oil traded almost unchanged to $71.29 while gold traded down $7.10 to $990.80 per ounce.
Major economic news releases today showed that July retail sales out of Australia fell unexpectedly by 1.0 percent versus forecasts expecting a 0.5 percent rise. Australian home loans declined by 2.0 percent in July while investment lending also fell by 4.0 percent. New Zealand’s interest rate announcement is scheduled for release at 21:00 GMT with expectations for a rate hold at the current 2.50 percent.
Out of Europe, Germany’s consumer prices increased by 0.2 percent in August. The United Kingdom’s trade deficit registered £2.4 billion in July, more than forecasts expected but virtually unchanged from June’s deficit.
Today’s EUR/USD Chart – The euro continued its upward climb versus the dollar in today’s trading as the EUR/USD pair trades above the 1.4550 level and made a fresh 2009 high. The euro has gained over 250 pips against the dollar from the beginning of the week and looks to be on its way to test the December 2008 resistance level around the 1.4700.
