FYI: If there has been one steady pillar of the economy over the last several years, it has been jobless claims. Outside of a brief period late last year and early in 2016, where claims started to drift higher, the trend has been solidly lower. This morning’s weekly report was no exception. While economists were expecting first-time claims to come in at a level of 275K, the actual reading came in at 259K. That reading is notable for multiple reasons. First, there hasn’t been a lower weekly reading all year. Second, it represents the third lowest weekly reading of the entire economic cycle, and third, as shown in the chart below, claims are now comfortably below that uptrend line formed from the October low of 256K. Pretty impressive to say the least.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bespokepremium.com/think-big-blog/jobless-claims-continue-to-amaze/
