In the currency market, the dollar dropped against the euro. Late Thursday, the euro was trading at $1.315 vs. $1.315 on Wednesday.

Well, the litany of bad news continued yesterday, and in fact may be picking up speed.

First, the Labor Department said jobless claims rose by 159,000 in the week ending January 17, to a seasonally adjusted 4.78 million, the most since the government began keeping records in 1967.

Then the Commerce Department reported that orders for U.S.-made durable goods slumped 2.6% in December, with weaker demand shown for almost all products except defense-related items. (I.e., without government spending, who knows how much worse it would’ve been?)

And separately, Commerce said that new home sales fell 14.7% in December, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 331,000. That far exceeded economists’ expectations to the downside, and marked the lowest level since the series began in 1963.

All told, “The fear is that the slowdown spills over well into 2009 putting expectations of a second half rebound into question,” wrote David Watt, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets.

Nevertheless, over in Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum is meeting, Indian commerce minister Kamal Nath said Thursday, “There is no sense of doom here,” although he allowed that, “There is a sense of gloom.”

Source: Dollar Slipped Against The Euro