Big Drop in Weekly Jobless Claims … QE3 Killer?

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By Jon C. Ogg Updated Published

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The Labor Department is back to reporting volatile data on the weekly jobless claims. We saw in recent weeks a big drop and then a big gain. Now we have a drop of 35,000, down to 353,000, for the previous week. The prior week was revised from 386,000 up to 388,000. Bloomberg had a consensus target from economists of 380,000. That was also the consensus from Dow Jones.

Another measurement is the four-week average, and that fell by 8,750 to 367,250 in the last week. The continuing claims, the army of unemployed which is reported with a one-week lag, fell by 30,000 to 3.29 million.

Today’s news probably will be considered some fresh air for the market, but it has a flip side to it: better jobs will limit the urgency of new quantitative easing measures from Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve. With unemployment at 8.2%, and with more than 3 millions job openings, the employment situation still needs some help.

JON C. OGG

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About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

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.

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