Economic Data

This comes from Alan Abelson at Barron's talking about seasonal adjustments for February data:   The misleading figures cut across a wide swath of the economy, encompassing housing, manufacturing, employment -- you name it. The…

Jobless claims for the week ending March 21st are in. There were 652,000 initial claims last week, bringing the unemployment roles to a record 5.56 million. Both figures are seasonally-adjusted and reflect minor changes in seasonal…

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor released its Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report. I see the data as mostly good. The headline seasonally-adjusted numbers were 646,000 initial claims and 5.47 million continuing claims, both…

Initial jobless claims for the U.S. came out today for the week ended March 7th and the number was 654,000, up from an upwardly revised 645,000. This puts the widely quoted 4-week average at 650,000, a business cycle high. All numbers…

This is the most important  employment number in recent memory. Consensus estimates were for 650,000 with a wide range from 500,000 to 800,000.   Everyone is looking to this number to determine where we are headed. There was a…

Initial jobless claims came in at 639,000, down significantly from 670,000 the week before. This is one positive in a sea of bad news regarding the employment market. It does not mean that tomorrow's unemployment number will be good. Expect…

The widely followed ADP Employer Services jobs report shows that 697,000 jobs were lost last month, suggesting a very large unemployment number when the government data is released on Friday. I have indicated in the past that seasonal…

The jobs picture is looking grim. Jobless claims for the week ending 14 Feb 2009 were 627,000, pushing the average to 619,000. Additionally, nearly 5 million people are staying on the unemployment roles, the highest figure ever. But, it…

With a name like "Credit Writedowns," this site is obviously not preternaturally given to the wildly optimistic scenario. In fact, my operating assumption is to hope for the best, but plan for the worst and expect something in between.…

Despite having made a number of bearish comments regarding China and its near-term outlook, I am a long-term China bull. Even over the short-term, China's willingess to fund long-term infrastructure projects will serve as a buffer against…