Stocks Surge On Small Drop In Initial Jobless Claims; Continuing Claims Hits 33-Month High
The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time fell from 12-month highs at 249k to 233k last week...
Source: Bloomberg
The non-seasonally-adjusted claims data plunged and is basically unchanged over one and two years...
Source: Bloomberg
...as it appears the Texas storm impact is fading...
Source: Bloomberg
With Michigan and Texas dominating the drop in initial claims...
But, continuing jobless claims rose to 1.875mm Americans - the highest since Nov 2021...
Source: Bloomberg
...and smoothing for the week to week noise - the 4-week moving average of initial claims also reached a new cycle high.
One key thing to note that we warned about...
One thing to note: the unemployment rate of 4.3% was boosted 0.2% by people on temporary layoff which increased by 249,000. This is mostly due to Hurricane Beryl, so expect the unemp rate to slide back to ~4.1% next month.
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 2, 2024
Is this bad news or good news?
Stocks seem to think 'good' news.
Imagine what happens next week if CPI is hotter than expected?