Finally Some Good News on Weekly Jobless Claims, Import Prices Too!
The U.S. finally got some good news on the weekly jobless claims report from the U.S. Labor Department. Jobless claims fell in the last week down by 26,000 to 350,000. It is almost certain that the Fourth of July falling…
The indication is that this last week’s drop was due to seasonal factors, and we would again point to the Fourth of July holiday falling on a Wednesday. The army of unemployed, those making claims for more than a week, is measured with a one week lag and that report was down by 14,000 to 3.3 million.
Elsewhere from the Labor Department’s inflation watch, import prices were down 2.7% month over month due to lower fuel costs. This was the largest drop in over three years and it was the third consecutive drop. Import prices were down 2.6% from a year ago.
Today’s numbers sound good on the surface. Unfortunately they are easy to ignore due to ‘exceptions’ and due to negative headlines elsewhere.
JON C. OGG
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.
