Well that's a kick in the balls.
In the week ending June 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 386,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 380,000. The 4-week moving average was 382,000, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 378,500.
The market's instant reaction was to trade down, then we bounced pretty smartly. I'm willing to bet that's on the "prospect" for The Fed to come in with more easing sleazing next week.
I wouldn't be so sure. Oh yeah, oil at $83 gives them some room, I suspect, but the problem is that more QE won't do anything anyway with the 10 year Treasury trading 1.6%, and with the debt ceiling coming up soon unless that's increased Treasury can't use it to do more deficit spending either.
But Pavlov's dog will salivate anyway, and did. The amusing part is going to be watching whether the dog bites the arm off the nice man when no steak appears as expected next week.
The big table continues to show large drops in extended benefits -- this time around 135,000 people who must be presumed to have rolled off (rather than found jobs.)
Bullish, right?
