Labor Department: CPI Meets 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.