Jobless Claims Preview
Jobless Claims for the week ended Jan. 25 will released at 8:30am EST Thursday. Initial Claims are expected to rise to 320,000, while Continuing Claims are expected to decrease to 2.675mln.
Last week, Initial Claims dropped to 301,000, their lowest level since September ‘07. The 4wk moving average for Initial Claims fell to 314,750, which is down nearly 40k since hitting a 2-year high of 343k in mid-December. Continuing Claims fell 75k last week to 2.672mln, dropping the 4wk moving average to 2.715mln.
December labor data including ADP employment, Jobless Claims, and Nonfarm Payrolls all pointed to softening in the labor market. However, today’s better-than-expected Jan. ADP Employment figure, combined with the recent decrease in the 4wk moving average of Initial Claims signal that labor market weakness may be unfounded.