Economics

[TonyM]

New jobless claims for last week, slightly less than estimated

US Initial Jobless Claims(WoW)06-Jan: 247K (est. 255K, prev. 235K)
-Continuing Jobless Claims(WoW)30-Dec: 2.087M (est. 2.084M)


Initial jobless claims rise less than forecast
(note: the article contains a simple arithmetic mistake)

http://www.businessinsider.com/initi...12-2017-2017-1



The 52-week moving average of non-seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims has hit (yet) another post-crisis low

[TonyM]

This morning's news --

Wholesale Prices in U.S. Rise for Third Time in Four Months
http://bloom.bg/2j7Q9aK

US PPI (MoM) Dec: 0.30% (est 0.30%; prev 0.40%)
-PPI (YoY) Dec: 1.60% (est 1.60%; prev 1.30%)

U.S. Retail Sales Picked Up in December on Motor Vehicle Demand
http://bloom.bg/2ikkqG2

Note: no increase in retail sales if autos and gas excluded --

US Retail Sales Advance (MoM) Dec: 0.6% (est 0.70%; rev prev 0.20%)
- Ex-Auto (MoM) Dec: 0.20% (est 0.50%; rev prev 0.30%)
US Retail Sales Ex-Auto and Gas (MoM) Dec: 0.00% (est 0.40%; rev prev 0.30%)
- Control Group (MoM) Dec: 0.20% (est 0.40%; rev prev 0.00%)

[TonyM]

Business news this morning not particularly good --

Department store retail sales -8.4% YOY, worse than at any point in late 2008 or early 2009:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=cmpu

US Business Inventories (MoM) Nov: 0.70% (est 0.60%; rev prev -0.10%)

US Univ. of Michigan Sentiment Jan P: 98.1 (est 98.5; prev 98.2)

However, holiday sales were up more than expected, especially online sales

[TonyM]

American Apparel starts layoffs

Many of the 2,166 employees at the company's
headquarters in Los Angeles and 959 employees at the nearby South Gate
manufacturing facility now stand to lose their jobs, the sources said,
asking not to be identified disclosing these details to the media.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-am...idUSKBN15025M?

[TonyM]

Donald Trump wants to weaken the dollar. Here’s how he can - http://bloom.bg/2jlPKl3

[TonyM]

CPI has reached the Fed's target of 2%. This means that interest rate increases are coming this year.

CPI - Y/Y change .......................... 2.1 %

CPI less food & energy - Y/Y change 2.2 %

[TonyM]

Initial Jobless Claims Reported by States

US Initial Jobless Claims (WoW) 13-Jan: 234K (est 252K; rev prev 249K)
-Continuing Claims (WoW) 06-Jan: 2046K (est 2.075M; rev prev 2.093M)


Four-week moving average of jobless claims now at a new cycle low of 246.25.

[TonyM]

The average number of people filing for unemployment insurance over the last 4 weeks dropped to its lowest level since 1973.

[TonyM]

Of the 500 current members of the S&P 500, 382 of them have doubled (or more) during Obama's eight years in office and just 19 are selling at a lower price than Jan 2009.

[TonyM]

China Is Shedding U.S. Debt Holdings at Record Pace



http://dlvr.it/N956jx