The U.S. Department of Labor has released its reading on weekly jobless claims. People who applied for jobless benefits decreased by 14,000 to 298,000. This was a decline from the previous level of 312,000, which had been revised from the preliminary report of 311,000. The number of weekly claims beat the Bloomberg consensus estimate of 300,000.
The four-week running average increased by some 4,750 to 300,750 this week.
Continuing jobless claims fell 49,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.5 million. These continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag. We would point out that this is the lowest level that continuing jobless claims has hit since June 2007, long before the recession began.
As we have seen in most reports of late, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said that there were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims.
Stocks have remained firm after the report. S&P 500 futures were up three points and DJIA futures were up about 30 points. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was 2.43% on last look.
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