The U.S. Labor Department is out with another weekly jobless claims reading. Claims rose 4,000 last week to 277,000. This is the fourth straight week with claims ticking higher, but it is still at very low historic levels. Bloomberg had the consensus estimate at 270,000, on a range of 265,000 to 274,000. Dow Jones had its Wall Street Journal consensus at 272,000.
The prior weekly claims report was revised from 274,000 down to 273,000. Usually those adjustments tick higher.
To smooth the weekly volatility out, the four week-average is measured, and that figure climbed by 5,500 claims to 271,500. That figure had been in decline prior to this report.
The number of continuing claims, the army of the unemployed, reported with a one-week lag, fell by 24,000 to 2,254,000.
After the Fed minutes, the markets are now dealing with a Fed rate hike cycle starting later than September. That is at least the mental tab as of today. This report on weekly jobless claims should do nothing to sway Janet Yellen and her Fed presidents on the FOMC one way or the other.
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