Jobless Claims Rose to 965,000

This morning’s jobless claims report was a bad one. The government said that 965,000 Americans filed jobless claims. That’s the most since August and it’s a clear sign that the trend has turned. Wall Street had been expecting 800,000.

This is more confirmation of last week’s lousy jobs report. Two weeks from today, we’ll get our first look at Q4 GDP and I’m afraid it won’t be good.

Still, the jobless number for the week ended Jan. 9 was another sign of economic turmoil brought on by restrictions in activity aimed at combating the pandemic. The total was the highest since the week of Aug. 22, when just over 1 million claims were filed.

Continuing claims also were higher, rising 199,000 to 5.27 million. That figure runs a week behind the weekly claims total and increased for the first time since late November.

There’s unusual market action today. Stocks are up modestly, but small-caps are doing very well. As I write this, the Russell 2000 is up 1.88% while the S&P 500 is up just 0.20%. Since late September, the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) is up close to 50%.

On our Buy List, we have new highs today from Ansys (ANSS), Cerner (CERN), Heico (HEI), Miller (MLR) and Trex (TREX).

Posted by on January 14th, 2021 at 11:54 am


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