Dollar traders were buoyed by economic news that—what else?—was not as bad as it might have been.

The Commerce Department reported that new orders for U.S.-made durable goods fell only 0.5% in April. While a second straight monthly decline in durables is not particularly good, that number was well below the 2.8% drop projected by economists.

And it had some analysts beaming.

“This was a decent report and seems to indicate that the economy has far from collapsed…there is a real chance we escape with maybe only one negative quarter of growth,” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

But others were less sanguine and urged a wait-and-see approach since durable goods orders are down 3.4% year-over-year, and the hit from higher oil prices is mostly yet to be felt. “We expect a much weaker report in May,” commented Ian Shepherdson, of High Frequency Economics.

Source: Dollar Firm