The latest report on initial claims was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning. Overall, the data is consistent with 13-week average. This is also the first data we have received during the holiday period, which has been known to be volatile.
In the week that ended on Nov. 30, initial claims for unemployment benefits rose to 224,000. The number was slightly higher than the analysts’ expectation of 215,000+ for the previous week, which had been revised upwards to 217.500.
Pennsylvania and Kentucky are the states with the highest initial claim increases.
The average initial claim for the 13-week period is 226,000.
Continuing claims dropped from 1.9 millions a few weeks ago to 1,87 million the previous week. Analysts expected that there would be no change.
The report has lowered expectations for a rate reduction of 25 basis points later in the month. Fed funds markets are now pricing in a chance of 29.9% that Fed officials leave interest rates unchanged. This is up from 21.9% Wednesday.
After the news, stocks dipped before paring their gains. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes were trading relatively flat midway through Thursday’s session, down 0.04% and 0.06%, respectively, at 2 pm ET.
Bitcoin hovered around $101,000 this afternoon. It continued its upward trend that began Tuesday night when it broke the $100,000 barrier for the very first time. Below, we’ll tell you more about that and the next steps.
The November employment report will be released tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. ET. We need more Goldilocks information.
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