Some Key Economic Reports

This morning’s jobless claims report fell to 406,000. That’s another pandemic low. That’s below Wall Street’s estimate of 425,000.

“Many of the factors that sidelined workers earlier in the recovery are changing to contribute to fast job gains in the rest of 2021. The pandemic is coming under control in the U.S., assuaging health fears,” wrote PNC senior economist Bill Adams.

While claims had remained elevated through the pandemic period, they’ve recently made a marked shift lower amid the economic reopening spurred by accelerated vaccines and sharp decline in Covid cases.

Multiple states also have been shutting down their extended benefits programs as business reopens and unemployment levels decline.

Continuing claims fell sharply, declining by 96,000 to 3.64 million, bringing the four-week moving average down to 3.68 million. That number runs a week behind the headline claims total.

The Commerce Department said that the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 6.2%. That matched the initial report we got last month.

The report on durable goods fell by 1.3% last month. Wall Street had been expecting a gain of 0.95. If you excuse transportation, then orders rose by 1%.

Posted by on May 27th, 2021 at 12:06 pm


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