Any hopes that the S&P would hit a new all time high on horrible initial claims data may have been dashed following a report that initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped from an upward revised 355K (was 352K) to 339K, better than the expected 350K, and down to a nearly fresh five year low. It was unclear immediately following the report which states were estimated if any: as a reminder last week the DOL announced that 2 states had their data estimated. Continuing claims dropped from an upward revised 3093K to 3000K, the lowest in 5 years. Of course, with millions of people now prematurely out of the labor participation rate, what if any data the initial claims report provides these days, is very much unclear.
[5]
Looking at the week ago, we find that the states with the biggest changes up and down in claims were NY and California:
- NY -14,113: Fewer layoffs in the transportation, educational services, and food service industries.
- CA +24,303: Layoffs in the service industry.
Finally, extended claims in the form of EUC, have finally seen their weekly wild gyrating oscillations quiet down.
[6]
Source: DOL [7]