Weekly Jobless Claims at a Five-Year Low

Today’s report was better than all economists were calling for. Bloomberg showed an economist range of 326,000 to 341,000. The consensus from both Bloomberg and Dow Jones was 335,000.

Recent bond strength may need to take a breather if the jobless reports are going to keep getting better and better. The FOMC has set an easy money interest rate policy until unemployment returns to 6.5%, and it even raised the threshold on what it would accept for inflation to get the workforce back to where it needs to be.

This was a good report, but it is just a weekly report. The Federal Reserve likely will keep its finger on the “buy button” for quite a bit longer.