The Labor Department is out with two different reports on Thursday, both of which matter in the grand scheme of things. January inflation via the Consumer Price Index took stage, as did weekly jobless claims.
Inflation remains tame on the consumer front, which is no surprise considering the wholesale inflation release seen in the PPI Wednesday. CPI came in up 0.1% on the headline, and up 0.1% on the core inflation (ex-food and energy). Bloomberg was calling for 0.1% on the headline and 0.2% on the core. Unfortunately, there is just little to quibble over here.
Weekly jobless claims are still painting a very mixed picture. The report came in at 336,000, versus the Bloomberg consensus of 335,000. Last week’s 339,000 reading was left alone. The four-week average was up slightly to 338,500 from 336,750 in the prior week. Continuing claims, what we call the army of the unemployed (and reported with a one-week lag), were up by 37,000 to 2.981 million.
Investors were watching these numbers very closely right at the 8:30 mark, but these numbers are simply not enough off the mark that they should be having much influence in stocks and bonds on Thursday.
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