Jobless claims continue recent strong streak
Programming note: I’ll put up separate posts on durable goods orders, real manufacturing and trade sales, and the Q4 GDP reports later.
Initial jobless claims have been the best performing – and perhaps only positive – element of the short leading indicators in the past few months. And that continued in this morning’s report.
Initial claims declined -6,000 to 186,000, the lowest number since last April. The 4 week average declined -9,250 to 197,500, the lowest since last May. Continuing claims with a one week delay increased 20,000 to 1.675 million, still -43,000 below their recent high in December:
Only continuing claims were higher YoY. Initial claims, and more importantly, their 4 week
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