Jobless Claims, Personal Income & Spending Weigh on Unemployment

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
By Jon C. Ogg Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

The data this morning from the Labor Department is not great news, but it is not awful news either.  The weekly jobless claims came in 351,000 from a revised figure of 353,000 a week ago.  Bloomberg had estimates of 355,000 and the prior week’s unrevised data was 351,000 on a preliminary basis.  Continuing jobless claims came in at roughly 3.4 million and that figure is reported with a one-week lag.

The reading for personal income and spending came in a tad light for the month of January.  Personal income rose by +0.3 in January against a Bloomberg consensus of +0.5%.  Personal spending, the grease of the economy, rose by +0.2% against a Bloomberg consensus target of +0.4%.

Today’s latest news on the jobs and spending front may be a light disappointment to some market observers, but all in all these are probably too indifferent to move the markets much in either direction on their own.  The next look will be toward the Bernanke testimony later this morning.

JON C. OGG

 

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. a673b.bigscoots-temp.com.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618