Despite the large drops in the employment and the factory orders in the United States, the U.S. dollar stood still against the euro today. Although, there were medium intraday spikes in both directions, the EUR/USD is currently trading close to its opening level — near 1.2856.

Initial jobless claims were at 626k last week — up from 591k a week earlier and above the consensus forecast of 580k.

Nonfarm business productivity rose by 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2008 or 2.8% in a year-to-year comparison. The growth follows 1.4% advance of the nonfarm business productivity in 2007.

Factory orders were down by 3.9% in December, following 4.6% drop in November. They still declined faster than the traders have expected (3.2%).