A slight disappointment from the US: jobless claims rose to 290K, a rise of 12K from last week. Continuing claims rose from 2.35 to 2.392 million. There were no unusual reports within the publication and last month’s number was not revised. The 4 week moving average is now up to 285K, still very low.
The dollar is slightly lower, with EUR/USD rising to 1.2472, GBP/USD ticked higher to 1.5750 and USD/JPY dipped to 115.30. All in all, this is a minor disappointment and not a major one.
The weekly US jobless claims indicator was expected to stand at 282K, following 278K last week. The 4 week moving average is under 280K, at the lowest levels seen since the year 2000.
Before the publication, EUR/USD traded around 1.2360, USD/JPT around 115.60 and GBP/USD was down to new lows at around 1.5740.
While weekly numbers can be shrugged as “one offsâ€, recent numbers have been quite steady and have been going down. Here is the preview: trading jobless claims with dollar/yen.
JOLTs are released later on. This is a jobs-related report for the month of September. Despite the lag, the Fed looks closely at it, and so do markets. Last week’s Non-Farm Payrolls numbers fell short of expectations and hit 214K in October. However, upwards revisions and a few other good internal numbers helped improve the picture.
