The U.S. Labor Department has reported a much larger drop in weekly jobless claims than was expected. The weekly jobless claims fell by 21,000 down to 323,000. Dow Jones and Bloomberg were both calling for a consensus of 335,000 in jobless claims.
We saw that the prior weekly claims report was revised higher to 344,000 from a 339,000 reported initially. Another factor was that the four-week average went to 338.500.
One concern is the continuing jobless claims. This is the army of unemployed, and it is reported with a one-week lag, compared to weekly claims. This figure rose by 66,000, up to 2.876 million claims.
Better and better jobs reports means that quantitative easing can end sooner, and that means the $85 billion in bond purchases can begin to be tapered sooner rather than later. Good news is bad news.
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