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Jobs Week continues this morning, both with Weekly Jobless Claims and U.S. Job Cuts from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. These follow the latest JOLTS report on Tuesday and ADP (ADP - Free Report) yesterday morning, and are ahead of the all-important Employment Situation report — including September nonfarm payroll totals and a new Unemployment Rate. What we continue to see is overall strength, even if private-sector payrolls yesterday melted down to sub-100K for the first time in quite a while.
Initial Jobless Claims for last week once again came in lower than expected: 207K versus expectations of 210K. This headline is slightly higher than the upwardly revised 205K the previous week, though it is the third-straight week below 210K — and a far cry from the 250K new jobless claims not seen since the first week of August. The 4-week moving average has also dropped below 210K as of this morning’s report.
Continuing Claims— as always, a week in arrears from new claims — also came in below analyst projections: 1.664 million, compared with 1.67 million expected. The previous week’s revision was also downward: from 1.670 million to 1.665 million today. So while job fills in the private sector, as depicted by yesterday’s ADP report, are clearly coming way down, we’re not seeing subsequent layoffs that would lead to a spike in jobless claims.
U.S. Challenger Job Cuts for September came way down month over month, from 75,515 to 47,457, though that August read was the highest in the previous three months. This metric shows intended job cuts in Q3, of which we’ve seen a big upswing year over year (+92%), but far from the 10K+ posted back in January of this year. Tech was by far the most popular sector in which to cut — nearly 152K positions, with Retail far behind in second place, 70,713. Economic conditions were considered the top reason to foster job cuts.
Also, the U.S. Trade Deficit for August shrank be more than expected: from the estimated -$59.5 billion to -$58.3 billion this morning. It’s even a more vast difference from the previous month’s downwardly revised -$64.7 billon registered. Without getting too far into the weeds here, we finally appear to be getting back to pre-Covid levels on our trade deficits. We’d have to go back to the first half of 2020 to find a comparable number, and it’s a sign America is starting to right the ship.
After an up-day yesterday, major market indices are sliding back in today’s pre-market: the Dow is -85 points at this hour, the S&P 500 -12 and the Nasdaq, which outperformed the field in yesterday’s regular trading session, is -30 points presently. We’ll also hear remarks from San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly later today, and from Federal Governor Michael Barr, who will speak on the risks of cyber-banking.
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Jobless Claims Come in Lower
Jobs Week continues this morning, both with Weekly Jobless Claims and U.S. Job Cuts from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. These follow the latest JOLTS report on Tuesday and ADP (ADP - Free Report) yesterday morning, and are ahead of the all-important Employment Situation report — including September nonfarm payroll totals and a new Unemployment Rate. What we continue to see is overall strength, even if private-sector payrolls yesterday melted down to sub-100K for the first time in quite a while.
Initial Jobless Claims for last week once again came in lower than expected: 207K versus expectations of 210K. This headline is slightly higher than the upwardly revised 205K the previous week, though it is the third-straight week below 210K — and a far cry from the 250K new jobless claims not seen since the first week of August. The 4-week moving average has also dropped below 210K as of this morning’s report.
Continuing Claims— as always, a week in arrears from new claims — also came in below analyst projections: 1.664 million, compared with 1.67 million expected. The previous week’s revision was also downward: from 1.670 million to 1.665 million today. So while job fills in the private sector, as depicted by yesterday’s ADP report, are clearly coming way down, we’re not seeing subsequent layoffs that would lead to a spike in jobless claims.
U.S. Challenger Job Cuts for September came way down month over month, from 75,515 to 47,457, though that August read was the highest in the previous three months. This metric shows intended job cuts in Q3, of which we’ve seen a big upswing year over year (+92%), but far from the 10K+ posted back in January of this year. Tech was by far the most popular sector in which to cut — nearly 152K positions, with Retail far behind in second place, 70,713. Economic conditions were considered the top reason to foster job cuts.
Also, the U.S. Trade Deficit for August shrank be more than expected: from the estimated -$59.5 billion to -$58.3 billion this morning. It’s even a more vast difference from the previous month’s downwardly revised -$64.7 billon registered. Without getting too far into the weeds here, we finally appear to be getting back to pre-Covid levels on our trade deficits. We’d have to go back to the first half of 2020 to find a comparable number, and it’s a sign America is starting to right the ship.
After an up-day yesterday, major market indices are sliding back in today’s pre-market: the Dow is -85 points at this hour, the S&P 500 -12 and the Nasdaq, which outperformed the field in yesterday’s regular trading session, is -30 points presently. We’ll also hear remarks from San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly later today, and from Federal Governor Michael Barr, who will speak on the risks of cyber-banking.