After 2 weeks of increassing (though near cycle low) jobless claims, last week saw a modest drop from a revised 284k to 276k. Texas saw initial claims jump to the highest in 5 weeks - stable at new normal higher-than-before the oil price crash. This leaves the smoother average hovering at or near 42 year lows... which leaves everyone in the world asking why ZIRP and why lower for longer and why moar threats of QE at every negative macro print or 2% drop in stocks. It seems pretty clear that companies have cut as far as they can cut... so any downturn in the economy now flows right through to the bottom line. The big question is - does any of this data extrapolate into the noise-prone payrolls number tomorrow.. and thus the future of the western world's wealth-creation bubble machine.
[4]
With Texas still troubled...
[5]
Charts: Bloomberg
