New jobless claims jumped 8,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 362,000, the Labor Department reports. That’s the third weekly increase in a row and the biggest weekly gain since late-January. In addition, the four-week moving claims average inched higher for the first time in two months. Are those reasons to worry? Well, yes. You (still) can’t take anything for granted in macro these days, least of all the idea that a recovery is destiny. Having said that, now’s a good time to roll out the standard caveat that weekly claims are a volatile series and to the extent that we can draw any conclusions here it arises from the trend. On that front, fortunately, the news is still encouraging.
Daily Archives: March 8, 2012
Strategic Briefing | 3.8.12 | Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Treasuries Slide Before U.S. Payrolls Report as Greek Bond Deadline Looms
Bloomberg | Mar 8
“The jobs report is key,” said Alessandro Mercuri, an interest-rate strategist at Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets in London. “The market has been telling itself over the past two months that the U.S. is not going to have a double-dip recession. If you look at the 10-year yield it seems that is has been forming a new range, a higher, much narrower one.”