Mubasher: Demand for the United States' manufactured durable goods increased in December for the second month in a row.  

Orders for long-lasting factory goods rose 1.2% to $254.4 billion in the last month of 2018, following a 1% increase in November, data by the US Census Bureau showed on Thursday.

New orders for core durable goods, excluding transportation, went up 0.1%, while ordered goods, excluding defence, grew 1.8%.

In addition, shipments of durable goods surged by $2.1 billion, or 0.8%, to $259.7 billion in December, while transportation equipment levelled up $1.4 billion, or 1.5%, to $91.4 billion.

Unfilled orders for durable goods witnessed a drop for the third consecutive month and fell $1.1 billion, or 0.1% to $1.180 trillion.

By 01:40 pm GMT, the EUR/USD pair went up 0.16% to $1.1356.